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The
Blind Assassin
Written
by Margaret Atwood
Reviewed by Marlene Baird
I am having difficulty reading The Blind Assassin. Not
because it is daunting, though it is. I sometimes like daunting
in my reading material. (Joyce Carol Oates 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 a 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, only
honesty.
On to page
68.
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