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I felt about Alias Grace the same way I did about probably half of Atwood's novels I've read so far - I just didn't fully get it. Nobody conveys Life ain't easy for a woman message as well as Atwood. Past, present, future - the living is rough for women. It is particularly unpleasant for Grace Marks, a young servant girl in mid-19th century Canada, accused of murdering her employer and his housekeeper with the help of her co-worker and alleged paramour, and who is locked up first in an insane as...
Murderess is merely brutal. It's like a hammer, or a lump of metal. I would rather be a murderess than a murderer, if those are the only choices. This is the story of Grace Marks. A most unfortunate woman-- depending on how you look at it.The story starts with Grace in prison, serving life after being granted clemency in the trial after the murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery. Out of the gravel there are peonies growing, the story begins. A dream that Grace had which she is relati
"When you are in the middle of a story it isn't a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard powerless to stop it. It's only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all. When you are telling it, to yourself or to someone else."This powerful passage is from Margaret Atwood's 1996 novel Alias Grace. She dev...
This book is a gem. A work of fiction, but based on actual historical events, Alias Grace is the story of the convicted murderess, Grace Marks. Sixteen year old Grace and fellow servant James McDermott are said to have brutally murdered their employer, Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper and supposed mistress, Nancy Montgomery, in Canada during the 1840’s. However, Grace claimed to have no memory of her own culpability in these murders. Both were found guilty; James McDermott was condemned to dea...
I'm giving this three stars, but the correct rating would be 2 1/2 stars - I liked this book, for the most part, but there were just too many unanswered questions and minor annoyances for me to want to read it again. Usually, I hate giving away the endings of books in my reviews, but I honestly cannot talk about Alias Grace without giving away major plot points. You've been warned. So: for the most part, this was a cool story, mostly because it's based on the true story of Grace Marks, who suppo...
I keep kicking myself for having ditched the Atwood Speaking Gala at A.W.P. in Chicago this year (2012). The fierce literati kept the attendance so high that it was virtually as if Lady Gaga herself were to give a lecture on her impressive body of work. I was more interested in walking all around Chitown, anyway, but I really (sorta) regret not having nabbed a coveted seat. She was probably amazing: uberclever & brilliant.Without two minor (teeny) infractions, “Alias Grace” is pretty much a well...
‘’...and the real curse of Eve was having to put up with the nonsense of Adam, who as soon as there was any trouble, blamed it all on her.’’Grace is a murderess. She collaborated with her coworker to kill their master and his mistress. So the people say. So the people want to believe. Because, let’s face it, where’s the fascination in a murder committed only by a man? There’s no sensation, nothing to stir the crowds. Whereas a woman who took a life? Well, there’s the spectacle! Never mind that
So, so good!Alias Grace questions the existence of an absolute truth. Moreover, how is what we think of as the truth informed by power structures (specifically, gender and class disparages)? Can someone who is deemed mad tell the truth? Who do you believe when push comes to shove? Even though this book was written in the 90s and is set in the middle of the 19th century, it remains an incredibly relevant read. I couldn’t help but read this story as commentary on current developments, such as the
”If we were all on trial for our thoughts, we would all be hanged.”A fictionalised retelling of the story of Grace Marks and the part that she may or may not have played in the murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery. Grace was only 16 when she accused of murdering her employer and his housekeeper.This is a fantastic mix of true crime and historical fiction! Atwood blends the two wonderfully, even including actual excerpts from reports and books, as well as pictures of the two charged wit...
This is an extraordinary reconstruction of the life of Grace Marks, a domestic servant who was convicted of the double murder of her employers in Canada in the 1840s. In framing the story around her interviews with a young doctor interested in making his name by proving her innocence, Atwood is able to avoid committing herself on the degree of Grace's guilt and complicity while exploring a range of wider social issues. The doctor's troubled relationship with his deserted landlady is interwoven a...
I had just finished Alias Grace! Meanwhile, the news came from the book world that the jury broke the rule and now there are two books that can be read this year with the same tagging of Booker prize winner 2019 on them. Peter Florence, the chair of the five-member judging panel of Booker prize said, “The more we talked about them, the more we found we loved them both so much we wanted them both to win.” What can be a better time than this to say something about a book of Margaret Atwood, when s...
