Entertaining the Alien

15. The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood

Somebody (I think it might've been Julie) described Atwood as a stylemonkey. And she is, she's very stylistic, but I'd forgotten how much I love it.

I felt like I was reading this novel on two levels, first as a reader, following the story and enjoying it immensely, and second as a writer, taking it apart line by line to see how it was put together, almost like a mechanic. The problem is in trying to figure out how to use the parts now lying around me to make something new.

I never fail to be intrigued by how authors convey information to their readers, and sometimes in Atwood, it's so subtle, I'd find myself knowing something about the characters or the storyline, without having a single solitary idea of when or how she'd told me that. She tells the story between the lines, and I would love to learn how to do that.