2001 short list:
The Blind Assassin
by Margaret Atwood
Published by McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
The Blind Assassin
"Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." Thus begins The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood's new novel. Laura Chase's older sister Iris, married at eighteen to a politically prominent industrialist but now poor and eighty-two, is living in Port Ticonderoga, a town dominated by her once-prosperous family before the First World War. While coping with her now unreliable body, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life, leading up to the events surrounding her sister's tragic death. Chief among these was the publication of "The Blind Assassin", a novel which earned the dead Laura Chase not only notoriety but also a devoted cult following.
Sexually explicit for its time, "The Blind Assassin" describes a risky affair in the turbulent thirties between a wealthy young woman and a left-leaning man on the run. During their secret meetings in rented rooms and seedy cafés, the lovers concoct a pulp fantasy set on the Planet Zycron. As the invented story twists and turns through love and jealousy, self-sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real one, as events in both move closer to war and catastrophe.
Margaret Atwood is the author of over 36 books - novels, short stories, poetry, literary criticism, social history, and books for children. Her books have been published around the world and have been translated into more than 33 languages. Atwood's work is acclaimed internationally and has won many awards, including two Governor General's Awards (once for poetry for The Circle Game and once for fiction for her 1985 novel, The Handmaid's Tale, which later was shortlisted for the Booker Prize). She has also won or co-won three Trillium Awards (for Wilderness Tips, The Robber Bride, and Morning in the Burned House). Cat's Eye (1988) was an international success for which she won the City of Toronto Book Award and was again shortlisted for Britain's prestigious Booker Prize. Alias Grace (1996), was a finalist for the Booker Prize, the Orange Prize, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy. The Blind Assassin is Margaret Atwood's tenth novel and the winner of the Booker Prize 2000.
The Blind Assassin - excerpt
Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge. The bridge was being repaired: she went right through the Danger sign. The car fell a hundred feet into the ravine, smashing through the treetops feathery with new leaves, then burst into flames and rolled down into the shallow creek at the bottom. Chunks of the bridge fell on top of it. Nothing much was left of her but charred smithereens.
I was informed of the accident by a policeman: the car was mine, and they'd traced the licence. His tone was respectful: no doubt he recognized Richard's name. He said the tires may have caught on a streetcar track or the brakes may have failed, but he also felt bound to inform me that two witnesses - a retired lawyer and a bank teller, dependable people - had claimed to have seen the whole thing. They'd said Laura had turned the car sharply off a curb. They'd noticed her hands on the wheel because of the white gloves she'd been wearing.
It wasn't the brakes, I thought. She had her reasons. She was completely ruthless in that way.
"I suppose you want someone to identify her," I said. "I'll come down as soon as I can." I could hear the calmness of my own voice, as if from a distance. In reality I could barley get the words out; my mouth was numb, my entire face was rigid with pain. I felt as if I'd been to the dentist. I was furious with Laura for what she'd done, but also with the policeman for implying that she'd done it. A hot wind was blowing around my head, the strands of my hair lifting and swirling in it, like ink spilled in water.
"I'm afraid there will be an inquest, Mrs. Griffen," he said.
"Naturally," I said. "But it was an accident. My sister was never a good driver."
