Something Worth Reading

BOOK REVIEW:  BLIND ASSASSIN by Margaret Atwood

     I read a lot.  I scan the recommended books on the Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites.  I read the commentary that crosses my computer from GoodReads.  I try out new novels and new authors through my book club.  I try not to waste my time on lousy novels.  I look for character development that makes me live the book through the character's eyes.

     Books can be characterized according to how they unfold.  There is the cactus...surviving in a dry, dry environment...things move slowly...and there are always prickly thorns to irritate you along the journey.  When you finish a cactus book, you need to have a tall drink of water because the experience was so dry and dessicated.

     Then, there is the rope...many minor strands of plot...twisted and sometimes knotted...pay attention as a little tidbit would be a key factor in the denouement...make sure that you keep track of the various characters and what they are doing to whom for what reason.  If you don't, you will be lost in a tangled mess.  When you finish a rope novel, you will need a pair of scissors to cut yourself away from the tangled mess of events you just journeyed through.  Questions will continue to haunt you and make you look back to check out if you may have missed something.

     Margaret Atwood's book, The Blind Assassin, is such a book.  There are three novels woven throughout the book and at the end of the novel, she reveals things that knock your socks off.  "Why didn't I anticipate THIS happening!!"  She does a great job of enabling the reader to follow along with the three plots.  I am not quite sure how she does it but there are slight variations in the voice that place you in the right character.  This book was written in 2000 and won the Booker Prize.  It was an international bestseller and well worth the time to read.

          The picture is of happiness, the story not.  Happiness is a garden walled with glass;
           there's no way in or out.  In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no
           journeys.  It's loss and regret and misery and yearning that drive the story,
           along its twisted road.                                                         Blind Assassin Epilogue

     The final kind of book is the juggernaut...once the plot starts moving, there is no stopping it.  Dinner can wait...the ticking of the clock in the wee hours of the morning is meaningless...you hold your breath...then BAM!  you get smacked on the side of your head with a development you never dreamed could happen.  Wait...the author did mention something along the way.  "Why didn't I pay attention to details!!!"  Unfortunately, authors who write this kind of book can't seem to keep the energy going and tend to end up with formulaic novels which become bland and passe.  But the first one of its kind that you read can be fabulous.  Haven't read one of these books recently.  Searching for one.  Waiting to write one?