Atwood’s novel is difficult to classify. It is part tragedy, part love story, part mystery, and part historical fiction. On top of all of that, it also contains a science fiction novel, entirely embedded within, as part of its plot. “It was a saying among them that only the blind are free.” As such, this is an intricately told story, with multiple layers that also play with chronological order and the reader’s sense of understanding through time. The novel’s very first sentence begins with a conclusion of sorts, “Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.”
The plot is the story of the rising fortunes and subsequent fall of the Chase family, button manufacturing tycoons from Port Ticonderoga, Ontario. The tale is told by Iris Griffin nee Chase, by 1999 the last surviving member of the clan. “Nothing is more difficult than to understand the dead, I’ve found; but nothing is more dangerous than to ignore them.” Through chapters that alternate between her present day circumstances, flashbacks of old family secrets, historical news clippings, and excerpts of the interior sci-fi novel, the story sets out the history of the Chase’s, from the turn of the 20th century, through the Great War, the Depression, and World War II. “The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read.” The two Chase sisters, Iris and Laura, grow up together amidst great wealth, but also death, isolation, and responsibilities beyond their years. “Hand-kissing covered a multitude of sins. It was in Berlin that I learned to perfume my wrists.” The tone of the narrative is bitter, as is the tale. “For the children with their greedy little mouths represent the future, which like time itself will devour all now alive.”
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