This book is made up of stories told within stories. You have a first person narrator, who is writing a book within her narration, some newspaper clippings, a novel within the novel, and another story told within that. It's an ambitious project, but Atwood does it well.

The main characters are a pair of sisters, Iris and Laura, who are heirs of the Chase family of button makers. Throughout the book a multi-generational family drama unfolds that reveals the ability of stories to simultaneously perpetuate our lives after we are gone and to erase who we actually were.

I loved this book. Atwood is a master storyteller, and even though there were a few plot twists that were telegraphed, she made me care enough about the characters and what happened to them that I didn't really care. It's a great book! ( )

I expected the book to come as billed: "An intricately intertwined set of narratives hiding a shocking family mystery." Instead it was
1. Snippets of an interesting science fiction story, told by unknown lovers, padded with
2. An excruciating story of two young, insipid, girls and their coming of age. The beginning of the lives of the girls was interesting to develop setting and character, and their adulthood (the end of the time described in this part) was predictable, but at least relevant. However, for the middle 300 pages, this becomes an interminably long day-by-day description of everything that they ate and wore. In addition, because these girls are so completely insipid we are treated to the details of how they hate absolutely everything and aspire to nothing, which is a little less than endearing. However, this is still not the most insufferable of the three parts, because the remainder of the book is
3. The nominal framing device. Less a story on its own and more to remind us how "clever" Atwood is in her prose style, this framing device seems to consist of determining how many ways the narrator can find to remind us that she's old and her heart bothers her. She goes to eat donuts. She reads the graffiti on bathroom stalls. She has chest pain, a lot. She tries to do her laundry. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Even without much in the way of plot (that which there is having been telegraphed 300 pages in advance), this book could have had literary merit if the characters had been at all interesting. But instead Laura and Iris are the most frustrating characters known to my literary world. For example, Iris complains bitterly about getting married away to a rich man, for which one may have sympathy, had she not spent the proceeding 100 pages explaining how she wanted to be rich and she expected to marry money to get there. Laura is flighty and "spiritual," and disobedient, in such ways as to be maximally irritating but accomplish nothing. However, if Laura ever directly told anyone anything there wouldn't really be a book, so there is that.

The other most frustrating part of this book is the "unknown lovers" framing device for the Blind Assassin story. It is obvious to the reader who the unknown lovers are; however the characterization in this segment is so drastically different from that of the others (in that the female protagonist of this section, unlike every other female character in this book, has opinions, expresses them and acts on her will.) It is unclear whether this is done in a futile attempt to obscure the identity of the unknown lovers, or because the story is being told by an unreliable narrator (which makes little sense, given the final identity.)

Addendum, 12/11 - having finished Oryx & Crake it feels nothing short of criminal that Margaret Atwood spent time writing this book when she is clearly capable of so much more.
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Margaret Atwood is a wonder. This book is a marvel, a memoir of a fictional character that is rich, deep and contains lots that is unexpected. It's great; read it, if you have not. ( )

This drew me in. It was clearly building to something but I could never figure it out. What would happen that would make this all make sense? I kept reading hoping to find out what would explain all these clues that had been expertly dropped along the way.

The central characters were two sisters who are heirs to a button manufacturing company which failed in the 1930s after being the mainstay of their small city in Canada. The older sister is the narrator who tells their story sometimes by recalling earlier events as she ages and sometimes as if it was happening right then. Their father struggled after losing his wife, who had come from Montreal society. After returning from WWI he is both a hero and also someone who has to deal with his wounds for the rest of his life. When not going off to seek feminine companionship, he often avoids everyone by isolating himself in the mansion's attic, losing himself in alcohol. He's been trying to keep everyone employed even as the demand for buttons disappears in the depression but it's not a realistic solution. The trajectory is definitely downward.

The younger sister, a few years younger than the narrator, is always considered different. She says whatever is on her mind and what she says is always something no one anticipated. She, even without asking anyone's permission, invites to diner a young labor organizer her father's companion had brought to town. After an arsonist sets fire to her father's factory the young man is sought by the police as the most likely suspect. The older sister realizes her sister is behind the young man's disappearance. She finds them in a small closet in the attic. Instead of exposing them she helps getting food to him so he can hide until it's safe to escape. The die is cast.

With the factory nonfunctional the father finally comes to grips with reality and comes up with a solution with his rival. The rival will buy the minimal assets of the family as long as the older sister (now only 19) agrees to marry him. To rescue the family she agrees. The rival, now her husband, has political plans and a domineering older sister who makes all the decisions. The narrator is whisked off to Toronto to be the trophy wife with little to say about anything in her life.

A few years later she spies the young man on the street and tracks him down. They begin a torrid affair punctuated with his entertaining her with stories he makes up on the spot. This is where the Blind Assassin enters the pictures. His stories, Atwood's other side, are science fiction/fantasy tales. The Blind Assassin is the central figure of a continuing set of stories he makes up in those brief meetings where they are together.

Now the plot thickens. We learn that the younger sister is the revered author of a younger generation who admire her outspokenness. She has driven a car off a bridge under construction. While the event is spun in to an accident, her older sister assumes it was more likely a suicide. We eventually learn the younger sister had been subjected to an abortion against her will and believes the baby was the result of an affair the young man. The older sister realizes that can't possibly be true and confronts her, leading probably to the suicide. There's more involved here but I don't want to give everything away. Eventually it all ties together, trust me.

Many times I wanted to grab the narrator and say "why?" The choices she always seem to make are at best passive. There are definitely better ways to go but she never seems to go there. Her sister always seems to know the better way but the older sister almost never listens to her. Eventually we realize the younger sister needed someone to listen to her. The older sister doesn't get the message until it's too late for the younger sister. That was difficult to take. I can understand why some avoid stories like this describing how women are often victims.

One tangential part of this story stood out for me. Atwood clearly understands the challenges faced by people as they age to the point where they can no longer do what had been easy for them. Walks get shorter, canes appear, medications need to be attended to daily, falling becomes a constant fear, driving oneself is no longer an option. As a senior all this hit home. ( )

This is the first book by Margaret Atwood I have read, but it probably will not be the last! I just happen to catch a short description of the book and was intrigued enough to get a copy, and I'm glad I did. It has three plot lines interweaving with each other in the book making it hard to put down. It takes place in the present, the past, and on a mythical planet. Sounds crazy, but it all comes together. The characters are not particularly likeable (they made me angry at them at times), but they are very interesting and complex. As you read the book, you are trying to figure out how the stories will connect with each other. And one of the main characters dies in the first sentence of the book! For an interesting and complex novel with very good historical description (takes place in Canada from the 1920s to the present), read "The Blind Assassin". Margaret Atwood is a good storyteller. ( )