A great book by Atwood

The book “the blind assassin “ by Margaret Atwood is a tale of abandonment and loneliness. At least that is my opinion.

Iris is an octogenarian who is tormented by memories of her deceased sister.

Iris and Laura Chase are brought up in a rich mansion by their mother and Reenie-their domestic help, nanny and everything else. Their father returns from world war as bitter alcoholic. He has lost his one eye, one leg, two brothers and also his patriotism and faith in the first world war. 

He is also a reluctant owner of button factory inherited from his father. 

Then something worse happens to the sisters - Iris and Laura, their pregnant mother has an abortion and falls very sick. Does she have a premonition about her death? She takes s promise from Iris that she will always take care of her sister. And within a week, mother dies.

Iris lives as a witness to series of deaths first that of her sister, then husband, then daughter. Now she is old, fragile, poor and lonely. 

But she wants to tell the story of her life and that of her sister before her death. 

There is story within a story, a novel written by Laura Chase which caused a havoc after its publication. In that book there are children who weave such intricate silk dresses that the children go blind. These blind children will  become beggars, thieves and hired killers. And girls are sacrificed to the God. Because they scream and protest during the sacrifice, their tongues are chopped. And then story continues where one such blind assassin saves a girl to be murdered.

 This story is interweaved with the story of affair of a man and woman. 

But the life of Iris is no fairy tale either. Her father requests her to marry a much older man when she is just 18. And when they are in Europe for their honeymoon, Iris’s father dies of broken heart because this son in law is liquidate his button factory. The telegram which carried the news is not given to Iris. And the cruelty of Iris’s husband does not stop there. He blackmails Laura and gets her pregnant and then puts her in mental asylum. 

The book is a tale of wretched lives of these sisters. 

A wonderful book.