What readers think of The Blind Assassin, plus links to write your own review.

I found the book convoluted and confusing. Having said that with sheer purserverence (book club commitments) and patience I manged to unwrap each layer within the book! was it worth it ? not really...

aged 40

More info on the characters physical appearance would have helped in my novel study on Margaret Atwood. At points, it was difficult to understand, and also slow areas which caused you to wonder whether you should keep reading or give it up. Overall a good, but LONG read! :)

This was one of the worst books I have ever read. You never learned anything about the characters and who they were. The book started out confusing, jumping back and forth to different topics, very difficult to keep your interest.

My husband bought me this on the strength of Amazon telling him that people who bought Alice Munro books also liked Margaret Atwood. I'm not sure what the similarity could be, apart from the fact that they are both Canadian. If Alice Munro stories are as intricate and delicate as an intaglio brooch, on the evidence of "The Blind Assassin" Margaret Atwood's novels are like unwieldy cabin trunks bulging with old clothes, scraps of paper, newsclippings, and tattered notebooks.

This is a long book and like other reviewers it took me a while to get into it -- for the first 100 pages I really wasn't sure whether I would finish it. It starts out with an elderly woman, Iris Chase, looking back at her childhood with her younger sister Laura in a country mansion near Toronto during the 1920s and 30s. Their father owns a local button factory, brough to the brink of ruin by the Depression. At the age of 17, Iris marries (or is married off to) one of his competitors in the belief that her father's business will be saved as a result, but things don't turn out quite the way she thought they would. This story is interspersed with extracts from newspapers spanning 60 years, hinting at the family's trials and tribulations, and instalments of Laura's posthumously published novel, in which a story of doomed lovers mingles with thirties pulp science fiction featuring spaceships, scaly aliens, sacrificed princesses, and "undead" green women with purple hair and pointy breasts.

Confused? You will be ... but gradually I was drawn into the story, and the apparently conflicting parts of it started to slot together, the disordered cabin trunk turning into a Rubik's cube. You start to wonder how the repressed, exploited and apparently passive young Iris turns into the acerbic, often witty old lady who is telling the tale. Strange parallels appear between science fiction and real life. At the same time, Atwood drops subtle hints that this pattern is not telling quite the whole story -- there is still something hidden. I started to suspect at least part of the dénouement about 300 pages in, but I was still so riveted by the last 100 pages that I stayed up late to finish them, rather than put the book down. It's not just a gripping story/stories, or a feminist/political tract though -- it's about all sorts of other things as well, including why and how writers turn life into fiction. Marvellous -- I'm really glad I read it. I also *highly* recommend "Alias Grace" -- a totally different approach, but equally compelling. For my money, Atwood is one of the greatest modern novelists, and she grows greater with every book.

Worth the time, but still a disappointing foray from a magnficent author. She telegraphed the "twist" early on--of course it's fun to see if you get it right. But she's not in top form writing science fiction. Thankfully, most of the book isn't science fiction, but Atwood's crisp soul searching melodrama.

When she focuses on matters of the heart and body Atwood is without equal. The Blind Assasin could have dealt with this more---those who fought in the Spanish civil war, the women who liberated themselves in the depression, the businessmen who tried in vain to combat the depression. Perhaps next time.

I began reading this book because of a book club membership. At first I couldn't get through it the novel. I found it confusing and felt that Atwood wasn't getting to the point. She describes everything way too much. Consequently, I quit the book club because I was embarrassed about not being able to get through the very first book assigned. Then, one day, I saw the book in the library and decided to give it another chance. I read the chapters on my lunch daily breaks and complained to my coworkers how boring the book was. Then about half way through the story, I decided that I liked the science fiction portion of the novel and began to crave reading those chapters every day. It had taken me about four months to get there (seriously, it's a long book!). I figured out the ending around the last one hundred pages and finished them up in about two days. Was the book worth it? I think so, I recommended it to a coworker. Now, she's having the same trouble with it that I had, but I keep encouraging her to stick with it. She'll end up liking it as I did. I'm sure of it.

This is an amazing book! It is breathtaking, a wonderfully colorful journey through the life of a woman. Hours of great reading. Highly recomended! This book simply can NOT be missed!!! Make sure to read it you will NOT be upset! :)

This is simply the finest novel by a contemporary writer that I have read in the last three decades. Ironically, I almost put it down after nearly a third. I was baffled by and annoyed with the Blind Assasin chapters, considering them a distraction from the family story I was enjoying. I found myself skipping whole paragraphs. I stuck with it, becoming more and more fascinated. By the time I finished, I had been swept away. I IMMEDIATELY began to read it once more from the beginning, and I would recommend a second reading (at the very least) to everyone. Having had the truth revealed, the reader discovers layer upon layer of nuance and meaning. Not a word did I skip on this second reading; I was enthralled. I was in tears when I finished it the second time. My daughter, half a continent away, has begun it now, and I am reading it for the third time, so that we can discuss it by email as we go. (She, by the way, is LOVING the science fiction story that, for a time, put me off, and she is showing me symbolisms that I missed.) This third time I am simply relishing the lyrical beauty of Atwood's writing and the validity, wisdom and humor of Iris' "voice." I find passages reverberating in my mind as I fall asleep at night. These characters have become part of my emotional landscape. I suspect they will be me with for the rest of my life, and I am grateful to Ms. Atwood for bringing them to me.