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Loading... Alias Graceby Margaret Atwood
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Margaret Atwood has a wonderful talent to write beautiful prose and make even the mundane and simplistic acts of every day life engaging and enthralling. Alias Grace is a testament both to that skill and the thematic thrill an accused murderess can have upon society no matter the time. The novel relays a fictionalized version of the true life of Grace Marks, a Canadian maid who was convicted of murder for the death of Thomas Kinnear, her employer. It's a well-paced narrative, sparked from presence of a medical professional trying to find the truth behind the crime. In the end, you are left with both a feeling of knowing and yet still without a definitive answer, much like those who picked a side when the sensational headlines spread across the country and abroad. (  ) Alera | Oct 2, 2009 |  Dark, brooding, vivid, memorable - not to be missed! She is an amazing author. (  ) DowntownLibrarian | Sep 26, 2009 | This historical murder mystery, set in 19th century Canada, tells the story of Grace Marks, imprisoned for the double murder of her employer and his housekeeper (who was also his lover) in the household where she worked as a maid. Grace does not remember the events of the actual murder, and a group of churchgoers who believe she is innocent have engaged a psychiatrist to find out what really happened. The story must be pieced together from newspaper accounts, letters and the points of view of two unreliable narrators: Grace and her psychiatrist-confessor, who becomes obsessed with her. The reader is never left entirely satisfied as to what actually happened, but even so, the novel and Grace engage us through to the end. (  )1  sturlington | Sep 15, 2009 | I stayed up till 2 am reading this book. I haven't done that forever! Margaret Atwood is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I really like that I don't know what to expect in terms of subject matter, but the writing is always superb. Alias Grace is a historical fiction. Atwood researched a famous murder mystery in the 1800s and then wrote it from the point of view of the charged murderer, Grace. I love books like this where I can learn so much about the time period. In this one Atwood went into great detail about the fascination with phsychological diseases and the different schools of thought on how to treat people. I also enjoyed the Canadian history, which I knew nothing about prior to reading this novel. (  ) strandbooks | Sep 7, 2009 | I'm a huge Atwood fan. This was another great one by her. ( ) barnaby89 | Aug 19, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0385490445, Paperback)In 1843, a 16-year-old Canadian housemaid named Grace Marks was tried for the murder of her employer and his mistress. The sensationalistic trial made headlines throughout the world, and the jury delivered a guilty verdict. Yet opinion remained fiercely divided about Marks--was she a spurned woman who had taken out her rage on two innocent victims, or was she an unwilling victim herself, caught up in a crime she was too young to understand? Such doubts persuaded the judges to commute her sentence to life imprisonment, and Marks spent the next 30 years in an assortment of jails and asylums, where she was often exhibited as a star attraction. In Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood reconstructs Marks's story in fictional form. Her portraits of 19th-century prison and asylum life are chilling in their detail. The author also introduces Dr. Simon Jordan, who listens to the prisoner's tale with a mixture of sympathy and disbelief. In his effort to uncover the truth, Jordan uses the tools of the then rudimentary science of psychology. But the last word belongs to the book's narrator--Grace herself.(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:16 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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