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The Blind Assassin
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The Blind Assassin (2000) (edit title/settings)

by Margaret Atwood (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

The Blind Assassin opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the... read more

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Characters/People edit see section history

  • Iris Griffen: the narrator, former high-class, now impoverished
  • Laura Chase: Iris' younger sister. A bit of a wild-child.
  • Richard E. Griffen: Iris' nouveau riche husband
  • Reenie: Iris's and Laura's housekeeper since childhood
  • Alex Thomas: A politically radical author of pulp science fiction
  • Winifred Griffen Prior: Richard's sister. Looks down on Iris. Manipulative.
  • Aimee: Mother of Sabrina, Iris' daughter
  • Sabrina: Daughter of Aimee, granddaughter of the protagonist, Iris Chase. Is not present in Iris's life.
  • Norval Chase: Father of Iris and Laura. Button factory owner
  • Benjamin Chase: Grandfather of Iris and Laura
  • Myra: Reenie's daughter. Takes care of Iris in her old age.
  • Mr. Erskine: Iris and Laura's teacher.
  • Walter: Myra's husband, does general handiwork for Iris
  • Elwood Murray: Editor of the Port Ticonderoga newspaper
  • Callie Fitzsimmons: Artistic and socialistic lady-friend of the narrator's father. She becomes a thread connecting the narrator's lives--childhood and adult. She is looked on disapprovingly by the community.
  • Grandmother Adelia: Grandmother of the protagonist, Iris Chase. A society lady, which the protagonist knows little truth about.
  • Mrs. Murgatroyd: Housekeeper
  • Ron Hincks: Reenie's husband, a known tippler
Show all 18 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “I sometimes felt as if these marks on my body were a kind of code, which blossomed, then faded, like invisible ink held to a candle. But if they were a code, who held the key to it?I was sand, I was snow — written on, rewritten, smoothed over.””
  • “Not enough rain, say the farmers. The cicadas pierce the air with their searing one-note calls; dust eddies across the roads; from the weedy patches at the verges, grasshoppers whir. The leaves of the maple hang from their branches like limp gloves; on the sidewalk my shadow crackles.”
  • “But some people can’t tell where it hurts. They can’t calm down. They can’t ever stop howling.”
  • “I was stranded in the middle of the street… I stretched out my hand, like a drowning person beseeching rescue. In that moment I had already committed treachery in my heart”
    Iris
  • “For whom am I writing this? For myself? I think not. I have no picture of myself reading it over at a later time, later time having become problematic. For some stranger, in the future after I am dead? I have no such ambition, or no such hope. Perhaps I write for no one. Perhaps for the same person children are writin...g for, when they scrawl their names in the snow.”
  • “She's like to go through the closets, the bureau drawers - not to take only to look; to see how other people live; Real people; People more real than she is. She'd like to do the same with him, expect he has no closets, no bureau drawers, or none that are his. Nothing to find, nothing to betray him....”
  • “But why bother about the end of the world? it's the end of the world every day for someone. Time rises and rises, and when it reaches the level of your eyes you drown.”
  • “That is the other side of selflessness; it's tyrrany."”
  • “An unearned income encourages self pity in those already prone to it.”
  • “Whoe ever is left alive gets blamed.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Part I: The bridge
The Toronto Star, 1945
The Blind Assassin: Perennials for the Rock Garden

Part II: The hard-boiled egg
The Globe and the Mail, 1947
The park bench
The Toronto Star
The carpets
The Globe and Star, 1998
The lipstick heart
The Colonel Henry Parkman High School Home and School Alumni Association Bulletin, 1998

Part III: The presentation
The silver box
The Button Factory
Avilion
The trousseau
The gramaphone
Bread day
Black ribbons
The soda

Part IV: The cafe
The Port Ticonderago Herald and Banner, 1933
The chenille spread
The Mail and Empire, 1934
The messenger
The Mail and Empire, 1934
Horses of the night
Mayfair, 1935
The bronze bell

Part V: The fur coat; The Weary Soldier; Miss Violence; Ovid's Metamorphoses; The button factory picnic; Loaf givers; Hand-tinting; The cold cellar; The attic; The Imperial Room; The Arcadian Court; The tango
VI-The houndstooth suit; Red brocade; The Toronto Star, 1935; Street walk; The janitor; Mayfair, 1936; Alien on Ice
VII-The steamer trunk; The Fire Pit; Postcards from Europe; The eggshell hat; Besotted; Sunnyside; Xanadu
VIII-Carnivore stories; Mayfair, 1936; Peach Women of Aa'A; The Mail and Empire, 1936; The Top Hat Grill
IX-The laundry; The ashtray; The man with his head on fire; The Water Nixie; The chestnut tree
X-Lizard Men of Zenor; Mayfair, 1937; Letter from BellaVista; The tower; The Globe and Mail, 1937; Union Station
XI-The cubicle; The kitten; Beautiful view; Brightly shone the moon; Betty's Luncheonette; The message
XII-The Globe and Mail, 1938; Mayfair, 1939; The Be rage Room; Yellow curtains; The telegram; The destruction of Sakiel-Norn
XIII-Gloves; Home fires; Diana Sweets; Escarpment
XIV-The golden lock; Victory comes and goes; The head of rubble
XV-The Blind Assassin, Epilogue: The other hand; The Port Ticonderoga Herald and Banner, 1999; The threshold

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 99 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
This book is in World Book Night Titles 2011. (authoritative list)
This is book 2000 of 47 in Booker Prize Winners. (authoritative list)
This book is in TIME Magazine Top 100 English-Language Novels. (community list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This is book 65 of 100 in Top 100 Books That Defined The Noughties (Telegraph). (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Margaret Atwood (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: McClelland and Stewart
Country: Canada
Publication Date: 2000
ISBN: 0771008635
Page Count: 637

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PR9199.3.A8 B55 2000
  • Dewey: C818'.54

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Cat's Eye
  • The Handmaid's Tale
  • Bluebeard's Egg
  • Talking to the Dead
  • Babycakes
  • Madame Bovary
  • If Morning Ever Comes
  • The Impressionist
  • Homeland and Other Stories
  • Holy Fools
  • The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
  • Daughters of the House

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