The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Review by Marlene Baird

I am having difficulty reading The Blind Assassin. Not because it is daunting, though it is. I sometimes like daunting reading material - Joyce Carol Oates, a sometimes difficult author, is another favorite. I am having difficulty staying with this book because Ms. Atwood's words make me delve into myself. I'll be reading along and my mind will stop to think. But my eyes, knowing what enervating fodder lies ahead, continue to graze. Then I need to go back to absorb what I missed while cogitating. And re-reading what I have just skimmed over causes me to drift off again, reassessing the intent of her words, so that I'm almost going backwards.

I've been working on a memoir and dreading that my children, once they are old enough to be interested, will be bored by it. These words of Ms. Atwood's, in speaking of family history, have solved my dilemma: "I didn't want realism anyway: I wanted things to be highly colored, simple in outline, without ambiguity, which is what most children want when it comes to the stories of their parents. They want a postcard."

You can see why I'll still be reading this book months from now. Here, only on page 67 out of 522, I have had to stop, not only to think, but to write.

She has also made me consider, without emotion, how I might die. Will it be quickly, with my sparse eyebrows arched in surprise? Or on an airplane, after a PA announcement of trouble, with a few moments to get my soul in order? Maybe languidly, drugged, with too much time to contemplate failures or omissions. Will a terrorist get me? Will I drift off in my sleep? (So few of us deserve this that I'm unlikely to be among the lucky.) Alone? Or surrounded by kind people who've exhausted all topics of conversation meant to distract me - who will be glad, finally, to say, 'it was for the best.' (And, in such a case, it will be.)

I don't know how, but Ms. Atwood inspires courage. Makes one eager to live up to standards. There is no attempt at popularity here, simply honesty.

On to page 68. 

Marlene Baird started her writing career after working as a legal assistant, and raising three children. She is the author of short stories and four novels, Murder Times Two, The Filigree Cross, Minnie and the Manatees, and Claire Walker, all recipients of local and regional awards.

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