My Atwood Project, Part 10: The Blind Assassin

The Blind Assassin is Atwood's second novel-length foray into historical fiction, after Alias Grace. The historical part of this novel stretches back into World War I, through the Depression, then winds up with World War II, for which Atwood was alive.  

Here is my post from reading this novel during my project of reading all the Booker prize winners. 

It's a difficult book to sum up. The skillfully woven strands are these:

• the point of view of older sister Iris, chronicling her family's secret-filled past 
• a novel by the more idealist younger sister Laura, revealing those secrets to the world after her death by suicide
• Laura's novel includes a science-fiction saga imagined by young leftist Alex Thomas
• and newspaper articles about events at large, and the family's involvement

I can't say much more without SPOILERS, so BE WARNED.

Iris, writing from a bird's eye view in the present day, is similar to Aunt Lydia in The Testaments, filling in the history and explaining her own development from naive teen bride to cunning old woman (though Lydia seems to have never been very naive).

There are two secret cruxes: who is the unnamed young woman visiting Alex? Iris, or Laura? At first we think it's Laura; she's the one who skips school, who has a crush on Alex, who hides him when he is suspected of setting fire to her father's factory. But as the novel moves on, and Iris marries her father's rival Richard Griffen, our attention is drawn to the expensive wardrobe of the young woman, clothing that Laura would have scorned. Also, bruises that Iris's husband inflicted. We begin to suspect that Iris is Alex's lover; but is Laura also seeing him? Because Laura is pregnant, or claims to be. Then who is the father of Laura's baby? I'll leave that question unspoiled.

Another layered aspect to this story that I remarked more on this reading is the veiled meaning of the sci-fi story. It is actually an allegory for the love affair between Alex and the young woman. There is a secret plan for a palace coup, a group of rebels ready to invade (Alex's leftist buddies), and at the center of it the blind assassin (Alex) and the voiceless maiden (the young woman). The assassin is diverted from his mission by his love for the young maiden; the real life lovers propose their own solutions to the dilemma. Sadly, neither solution comes to pass.

It's a beautiful read, cunningly plotted, and a worthy winner of the Booker Prize - Atwood's first; The Testaments would be her second. Next comes the MaddAddam trilogy, starting with Oryx and Crake, another favorite of mine.

My Atwood Project, Part 9: Alias Grace

 Alias Grace is Margaret Atwood's first novel-length foray into historical fiction. However, it has a lot in common with her first speculative novel, The Handmaid's Tale, since both are primarily about incarcerated women. Alias Grace is inspired by the true story of a 16-year-old housemaid, Grace Marks, accused of murdering the head housekeeper and their employer, with the help of another servant. There was much doubt about her guilt, raised in part by Grace's own conflicting accounts. While the male servant was found guilty and hanged for the murder of the employer, Grace's own death sentence was converted to life in prison, and she was pardoned much later.

**My thoughts on Alias Grace are primarily about an important plot twist, so just skip this post if you don't want to know the crucial reveal.**

First, the title is a spoiler once you reach this turning point. During a hypnosis session, Grace speaks with a different voice and claims to be her dead friend Mary Whitney. It would appear that Mary committed the murders, which would account for Grace's fainting fits and her claims to remember nothing of the crimes. So the title would mean that in addition to Grace using Mary's name as an alias during her brief time on the lam, Mary used Grace's body to commit the murder of housekeeper Nancy Montgomery. 

The slippery part that Atwood leaves unresolved is whether the hypnosis session is authentic. Is Grace actually suffering from dissociative identity disorder, formerly referred to as multiple personality disorder? Does she really harbor Mary Whitney as an alternate personality? This illness usually comes about after serious trauma. Was waking up with Mary dead next to her after her failed abortion sufficient trauma to cause Grace's personality to split? Charis in The Robber Bride also has a split personality, but hers is a reaction to incestuous rape, which is a more usual triggering factor. 

Another possibility is that Grace and Jeremiah the peddler aka Dr Jerome Dupont (another alias), the supposed hypnotist, cooked up this scheme together. He is an experienced mountebank. He knew Mary and much of what she and Grace went through, so he could have coached Grace to pretend to be Mary and lay the blame on her. He seems genuinely surprised and shaken during the session, but we know he is a good actor.

A third possibility is Reverend Verringer's immediate diagnosis, that Grace is possessed. In this case, the novel slides from historical fiction into supernatural fantasy. The explanation would be that when Mary died, Grace did not know about the superstition which says to open a window, and so Mary's soul was trapped in the room with Grace, and occupied her body. The novel is full of such superstitions and omens, as is often the case in Atwood's writing. For example, Cat's Eye brushes up against this type of religious fantasy, when Elaine believes that the Virgin Mary has rescued her from her bullies.

Atwood does not purport to resolve this historical mystery, but she does introduce a fascinating wrinkle: what if this famous case of amnesia was actually a case of dissociative identity disorder? This disorder was discussed at the time, as Atwood affirms in the afterword. She will go on to incorporate historical fiction into her next novel, and first Booker winner, The Blind Assassin. Stay tuned!