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Margaret AtwoodA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Questions about truth are central to The Blind Assassin, in part because the novel is full of liars: Richard, Winifred, and Iris herself, who lies not only to her fellow characters but also to her readers. On the face of it, then, the plot of the novel seems geared toward separating reality from fiction and exposing the truth. As she draws nearer to her conclusion, for instance, Iris talks about the pleasures of watching other people "spill the beans," implying that in reading her story, we are waiting for the same payoff (448). And as promised, Iris's memoirdoes in fact end with a series of revelations: that Richard sexually abused Laura, that she herself wrote the novel-within-a-novel, and that Sabrina is Alex's granddaughter, for example.
On the whole, however, Atwood's novel makes it clear that there are no easy distinctions separating truth from falsehood or fantasy from reality. The structure of the novel alone blurs the lines between fact and fiction: the story of the blind assassin and the girl is also the story of the unnamed lovers, which is itself the story of Iris and Alex (but perhaps also, metaphorically, Laura and Alex). What's more, the title of Iris's novel is the same as the title of the novel we ourselves are reading, implying that our own reality is also part of this series of nested stories.
By Margaret Atwood
Alias Grace
Alias Grace
Margaret Atwood
Backdrop Addresses Cowboy
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Cat's Eye
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Death By Landscape
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Hag-Seed
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Happy Endings
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Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing
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Lady Oracle
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Life Before Man
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MaddAddam
MaddAddam
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Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake
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Rape Fantasies
Rape Fantasies
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Siren Song
Siren Song
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Stone Mattress
Stone Mattress
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Surfacing
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The Circle Game
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The Edible Woman
The Edible Woman
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The Handmaid's Tale
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The Heart Goes Last
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The Landlady
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Margaret Atwood