Canadian Fiction: Margaret Atwood's _The Blind Assassin_

Norval Chase returns, a broken man, to Port Ticonderoga in Margaret
Atwood's _The Blind Assassin_. He returns to a community that rushes to
lionize him but guiltily watch the metamorphosis that their Chase heir
had undergone from a young man to the caricature of a patched up
veteran. His wife feels the change as well. Like a sword, the war had
hacked them apart. His physical injuries, the sudden fits of rage and
nightmares, drive them further apart. This physical deformity is
mirrored in his spiritual loss, "a much worse thing," as Iris notes
(Atwood 97). The war had pricked Norvel's spirituality: "Over the
trenches God had burst like a balloon," his daughter observes (97). His
experiences on the battle front, the loss of his brothers and his
trinity of injuries had shaken his faith to the core and he returns a
spiritually and physically broken man. This loss of spirituality finds
expression in his sexual escapades at the war front, clutching at life,
as Iris notes, "at whatever handfuls of it might come within his reach"
(96). The war had claimed its price from Norval Chase. However, the
broken and destroyed Norval and the Chase family is able to persevere
and create as well. Redemption and renewal is promised through the
impending birth of Laura. However, even in this midst of the
domesticated trinity of father-mother-child, there is a malevolent
presence that no one can put a finger on. The young narrator fixates on
the picture of the burning devil in her reading book while her nervous
mother "jabs" and "cuts" away at her sewing. The silence is unsettling.
The constant presence of this malevolent force, therefore, represents
the loss of happiness and innocence. The war has not only created
caricatures of men but also caricatures of family. The church bells
ringing around the country, therefore, strike a mournful, and not
celebratory, note. They are rung in memory of the passing of a golden
age and not to herald the birth of a new one.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0613369394

.