THE BLIND ASSASSIN MARGARET ATWOOD
Copyright
The Blind Assassin Copyright
©
2000
by
Margaret
Atwood
Cover art and eForeword to the electronic edition copyright © 2003 by RosettaBooks, LLC All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information
[email protected] First electronic edition published 2003 by RosettaBooks LLC, New York. ISBN 0-7953-2831-1
Contents
eForeword Part One The bridge The Toronto Star, 1945 The Blind Assassin: Perennials for the Rock Garden Part Two
The hard-boiled egg The Globe and Mail, 1947 The park bench The Toronto Star, 1975 The carpets The Globe and Mail, 1998 The lipstick heart The Colonel Henry Parkman High School Home and School and Alumni Association Bulletin, 1998 Part Three The presentation The silver box The Button Factory Avilion The trousseau The gramophone Bread day Black ribbons The soda Part Four The cafe The Port Ticonderoga Herald and Banner, 1933 The chenille spread The Mail and Empire, 1934 The messenger The Mail and Empire, 1934 Horses of the night Mayfair, 1935 The bronze bell Part Five The fur coat
The Weary Soldier Miss Violence Ovid’s Metamorphoses The button factory picnic Loaf givers Hand-tinting The cold cellar The attic The Imperial Room The Arcadian Court The tango Part Six The houndstooth suit Red brocade The Toronto Star, 1935 Street walk The janitor Mayfair, 1936 Alien on Ice Part Seven The steamer trunk The Fire Pit Postcards from Europe The eggshell hat Besotted Sunnyside Xanadu Part Eight Carnivore stories Mayfair, 1936 Peach Women of Aa’A
The Mail and Empire, 1936 The Top Hat Grill Part Nine The laundry The ashtray The man with his head on fire The Water Nixie The chestnut tree Part Ten Lizard Men of Xenor Mayfair, 1937 Letter from Bella Vista The tower The Globe and Mail, 1937 Union Station Part Eleven The cubicle The kitten Beautiful view Brightly shone the moon Betty’s Luncheonette The message Part Twelve The Globe and Mail, 1938 Mayfair, 1939 The Be rage Room Yellow curtains The telegram The destruction of Sakiel-Norn Part Thirteen Gloves
Home fires Diana Sweets Escarpment Part Fourteen The golden lock Victory comes and goes The heap of rubble Part Fifteen The Blind Assassin, Epilogue: The other hand The Port Ticonderoga Herald and Banner, 1999 The Threshold Imagine the monarch Agha Mohammed Khan, who orders the entire population of the city of Kerman murdered or blinded – no exceptions. His praetorians set energetically to work. They line up the inhabitants, slice off the heads of the adults, gouge out the eyes of the children…. Later, processions of blinded children leave the city. Some, wandering around in the countryside, lose their way in the desert and die of thirst. Other groups reach inhabited settlements…singing songs about the extermination of the citizens of Kerman…. —RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI I swam, the sea was boundless, I saw no shore. Tanit was merciless, my prayers were answered. O you who drown in love, remember me. —INSCRIPTION ON A CARTHAGINIAN FUNERARY URN
The word is a flame burning in a dark glass. —SHEILA WATSON
eForeword
Told in a style that magnificently captures the colloquialisms and clichés of the 1930s and 1940s, The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience Opening with a terse account of her sister Laura’s death in 1945, it is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a- no