Alias Grace

I am all in and then some for Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction (and I'm including [b:Hag-Seed|28588073|Hag-Seed|Margaret Atwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463887982s/28588073.jpg|49490147] in this category) but after DNF'ing [b:The Blind Assassin|78433|The Blind Assassin|Margaret Atwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451445426s/78433.jpg|3246409] (dull lead character despite an increasingly interesting plot), I've been leery of reading her other books. But I found the Atwood genius is alive and well in this one. ( )

More like 3.5, but I can't quite give it a 4, which isn't entirely the book's fault. Part of its power lies in the reader's anticipation of answers. Having watched the Netflix series first, I knew too much going into the book. This turns out to be one of those books about which I both liked a lot (the wry humor; the mystery itself; the complexity of Grace's POV; the attention to detail and the skillful weaving of story patterns, like the quilts that are the book's primary motif) and disliked a lot (periodic verbosity that left me slogging; the unlikable character and journey of Dr. Jordan which, based on the author's afterword, is entirely fictional and never felt necessary to me even when I thought he might be part of the historical narrative).

I meant to read this one after [b:The Handmaid's Tale|38447|The Handmaid's Tale|Margaret Atwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1498057733s/38447.jpg|1119185], but somehow I jumped to the front of the library queue, so I went ahead and tackled it first. I enjoyed this enough, overall, that I'll still read that one. ( )

"Gone mad is what they say, and sometimes Run mad, as if mad is a direction, like west; as if mad is a different house you could step into, or a separate country entirely. But when you go mad you don’t go any other place, you stay where you are. And somebody else comes in."

Alias Grace combines the suspense of Dreiser's An American Tragedy and literary style of Mantel's Wolf Hall. However, it never quite matches the attractions of those two great novels. Atwood loosely follows the true story of a double homicide in the 1840s, where a supposed couple is charged with murder but only the man is executed. She includes numerous news clippings and transcripts as well as, in my opinion unnecessary, lines from contemporaneous authors (Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tennyson). The novel switches between the perspectives of murderess Grace Marks and Dr Simon Jordan, tasked with ascertaining whether Grace is guilty or deranged.

The novel touches on a number of issues relevant to this setting: mental illness, class disparity, treatment of women, mysticism, justice, religion, civil war. The core plot systematically traces Grace's relationships, chronologically and through flashbacks: we meet her drunkard father, constantly pregnant mother, fellow maid Mary, doctor Simon, pedlar Jeremiah, as well as the murdered couple and convicted accomplice James McDermott. The events in question, as in the actual case, are shrouded in mystery. Grace herself gives various versions of what happened. Intermingled in this narration are Grace's and Simon's dreams, which further promote an addled impression of events.

Although I liked this novel, I never really felt I was in the 1840s, nor did I feel the epistolary components were believable. There is a diverting subplot of Dr Jordan's love live, the correspondence with his mother, his own fragile mental state and involvement in the civil war. The social commentary and descriptive passages are largely superficial, the medical dialogue vague, and many of the first person ramblings lacked any structure. Yet the novel is highly readable and certainly accessible to a wide audence. My favourite passages include Grace's feminist witticisms.

Favourite Quotes

"The ship was lying alongside the dock; it was a heavy hulking brute that had come across from Liverpool, and later I was told that it brought logs of wood eastward from the Canadas, and emigrants westward the other way, and both were viewed in much the same light, as cargo to be ferried."

"You would have thought she was trading a horse; I was surprised she did not ask to look at my teeth, but I suppose if you pay out wages you want to get a good return on them."

"It was the only church built there so far, and many who were not by rights members of that church attended it, as being better than nothing; and it had the only graveyard in town as well, so held a monopoly of the dead as well as of the living."

"As I’ve said, Sir, she was in the family way, and it often happens like that with a man; they’ll change from a woman in that condition to one who is not, and it’s the same with cows and horses; and if that happened, she’d be out on the road, her and her bastard."

"Like my namesake the apostle, I have cast my nets into deep waters; though unlike him, I may have drawn up a mermaid, neither fish nor flesh but both at once, and whose song is sweet but dangerous." ( )

"If we were all on trial for our thoughts, we would all be hanged."

Alias Grace is a work of fiction but based on reality. In 1843 Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery were murdered. Fact. Grace Marks and James McDermott were convicted of the crime. Fact. McDermott was hanged, and Marks had her sentence commuted and sentenced to life in prison. Fact. There is no doubt that McDermott committed the murders but what was Grace's involvement? Even today no one knows for certain whether or to what degree she was involved, she was gave three differing accounts of the events whilst McDermott gave two.

In the novel, after a number of years as a 'celebrated murderess' incarcerated in Kingston Penitentiary, a group of Methodist well-wishers, including the prison Governor's wife, who are petitioning for Grace's release, solicit the help of an American psychologist, Dr. Simon Jordan, in the hope that he can assist their cause. Simon wants to start a private asylum of his own and hopes that his work with such an infamous felon will help him make a name for himself as an expert in mental illness and thus get financial backing for his scheme. Grace tells Simon her life’s story including her version of the murders. Slowly he becomes infatuated with her as his perspective become increasingly clowded when he starts a rather tawdry affair with his married landlady.

Whenever Grace is relating her tale to Simon she is invariably also making a quilt. Each section is named after a quilt pattern and accompanied with a corresponding illustration. This then becomes an important motif. The first section is in itself a patchwork of quotes, poems, and historical documents that set the stage for what will follow. This pattern is repeated throughout the book as Atwood pulls the threads of this story together whilst also asking the reader to assume that nothing is quite what it seems. You must look at both the dark and the light places of the pattern when trying to discern the truth when offered conflicting and unverifiable facts.

In this novel Atwood challenges the reader to determine Grace’s guilt or innocence. Personally I found own opinion constantly changing. On occasions I felt that she was a victim of circumstance and coercion but equally I could never completely exonerate her. Come the end of the book, I was still unsure.

This is the latest of Margaret Atwood's books that I've read and once again I found her a compelling and confident story teller. I went away and Googled Grace Marks and James McDermott and realised that there really is a sparsity of facts surrounding the case, as such I felt that Atwood does a great job of sewing the few scraps of history that do exist in to a very readable piece of fiction. One interesting technique that she employs is that the chapters about Simon are written in third person whilst the chapters featuring Grace are written in first person.

The book however, isn't without its faults IMHO. Given that this is ultimately a piece of fiction, there was a distinct lack of action meaning that it takes a while to really get going. That said and done I still think that it is worth persevering with as it has a lot to offer.

Now I'm off to watch the Netflix dramatisation of this book to see whether they think Grace is a dupe or a capable liar. ( )

This isn't Alias Grace's fault, but this is the second really long book I've read in a row, and I was feeling exhausted by the end. I was hoping for some kind of twist ending because the rest of the novel seemed a little expected. From the start of the book, the end is already laid out, which made it feel anticlimactic. As with all Margaret Atwood novels, it's so well written that it was still enjoyable to read, however it's definitely in the bottom tier of her novels that I've read. ( )