I only took notes on the first chapter - here unedited:
My copy of The Blind Assassin is 641 pages - I'm happy we're not attempting to read whole novels.
But it was an intriguing first chapter - In just one 6-page chapter we get:
A first-person narrative A newspaper article A novel within the novel
Wow :)
Basically knowing way too little about literature considering my university degree in literature, I hadn't realized The Blind Assassin was as new as 2000 until I wrote up the schedule for the reading club.
Reading the first lines I was struck with how not-2000 it was written. I don't know Atwood enough to know if she successfully wrote as if she was writing in 1945, or if her writing style is just a little old-fashioned?
She really likes her similes and similar figures of speech - or Iris and Laura do.
Iris (first-person narrative): feathery with new leaves no more fuss than stepping off a curb as if from a distance as if I'd been to the dentist like ink spilled in water less like something she'd chosen to put on than like something she'd been locked up in as if she were admiring the view glinting like a dragonfly
Laura (novel within the novel): leather cases that looked like muzzles like the heat from a sun-warmed stone at midnight like a scratched match flaring as if to fend her off in play this square, lighted window of glazed paper as if she's peering into a well or pool shimmering like a jewel on sand as if discarded like ice cream smudged on chrome
Ok O___O
(I read on after the first chapter, but I didn't care for the characters at all, and when the sexual exploitation theme came up, I was reminded why I couldn't get through The Handmaid's Tale, either.)
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Date: 2015-06-21 05:57 pm (UTC)My copy of The Blind Assassin is 641 pages - I'm happy we're not attempting to read whole novels.
But it was an intriguing first chapter - In just one 6-page chapter we get:
A first-person narrative
A newspaper article
A novel within the novel
Wow :)
Basically knowing way too little about literature considering my university degree in literature, I hadn't realized The Blind Assassin was as new as 2000 until I wrote up the schedule for the reading club.
Reading the first lines I was struck with how not-2000 it was written. I don't know Atwood enough to know if she successfully wrote as if she was writing in 1945, or if her writing style is just a little old-fashioned?
She really likes her similes and similar figures of speech - or Iris and Laura do.
Iris (first-person narrative):
feathery with new leaves
no more fuss than stepping off a curb
as if from a distance
as if I'd been to the dentist
like ink spilled in water
less like something she'd chosen to put on than like something she'd been locked up in
as if she were admiring the view
glinting like a dragonfly
Laura (novel within the novel):
leather cases that looked like muzzles
like the heat from a sun-warmed stone at midnight
like a scratched match flaring
as if to fend her off in play
this square, lighted window of glazed paper
as if she's peering into a well or pool
shimmering like a jewel on sand
as if discarded
like ice cream smudged on chrome
Ok O___O
(I read on after the first chapter, but I didn't care for the characters at all, and when the sexual exploitation theme came up, I was reminded why I couldn't get through The Handmaid's Tale, either.)