Alias Grace in Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)

Oct 27, 2014 Candi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, historical-fiction

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 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 death and Grace Marks was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Provincial Penitentiary in Kingston, Canada.

In the novel, Grace’s story is revealed to Dr. Simon Jordan, a fictional, progressive, young doctor who is trained in the study of mental illnesses. Dr. Jordan’s expertise has been requested by a group of individuals who are petitioning for a pardon for Grace. Grace’s story, as she relates it in the first person to Dr. Jordan, is so very compelling, I could not put this book down. I was immediately drawn to Grace as she so expressively recounted her memories of her childhood, her migration to Canada from Ireland, her new life as a servant, her trial and her life in prison. Just like Dr. Jordan, I at first wondered about her guilt, her sanity, and whether or not she was speaking with candor or artifice.

The prose here is so wonderfully moving. At the end of one of her sessions with Dr. Jordan, Grace says, either to the reader or to herself:
“While he writes, I feel as if he is drawing me; or not drawing me, drawing on me – drawing on my skin – not with the pencil he is using, but with an old-fashioned goose pen, and not with the quill end but with the feather end. As if hundreds of butterflies have settled all over my face, and are softly opening and closing their wings.”

“But underneath that is another feeling, a feeling of being wide-eyed awake and watchful. It’s like being wakened suddenly in the middle of the night, by a hand over your face, and you sit up with your heart going fast, and no one is there. And underneath that is another feeling still, a feeling like being torn open; not like a body of flesh, it is not painful as such, but like a peach; and not even torn open, but too ripe and splitting open of its own accord. And inside the peach there’s a stone.”

Grace also has a way of discerning others that is at times both shrewd and witty. I felt as if she could easily have switched roles with Dr. Jordan – she being the analyst and he being the subject of her scrutiny rather than vice versa. And, Dr. Jordan, I felt was verily in need of some rehabilitation of his own psyche!

In addition, I found even her general observations of her surroundings to be rather droll. I found myself laughing out loud on occasion. In her description of a bustle, she says “it was like having another bum tied on top of your real one and the two of them following you around like a tin bucket tied to a pig.” Grace’s narrations of her dreams, too, were so vivid; I could feel the stirring emotions these evoked. “I was seeing it all for the first time, although I also knew I had been there before, as is the way in dreams… And I longed to be there, although in the dream I was there already; but I had a great yearning towards this house, for it was my real home.”

I grew to admire Grace throughout this book. But, was she innocent or guilty of the heinous crime for which she was convicted? Are we, the readers, able to come to a conclusion based on Ms. Atwood’s spin on this factual event? Or, is that not the real purpose here – to come to a veritable conclusion? No matter what you conclude, the consummate storytelling in this Atwood novel is well worth your time.
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Jan 26, 2018 Melanti rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, e-book, library, group-reads, historical

I normally enjoy Atwood and generally adore unreliable narrators but this one really fell flat for me.

On the unreliable narrator front - I felt the alternative explanations to be laughably implausible. In her inner monologue, Grace is revealed to be someone who is manipulative and catering her story to appeal to her target audience. And, granted, who wouldn't be, at that point. But when the best she can come up with is so silly and sidesteps all personal responsibility? Uh, no. I'm not buying i I normally enjoy Atwood and generally adore unreliable narrators but this one really fell flat for me.

On the unreliable narrator front - I felt the alternative explanations to be laughably implausible. In her inner monologue, Grace is revealed to be someone who is manipulative and catering her story to appeal to her target audience. And, granted, who wouldn't be, at that point. But when the best she can come up with is so silly and sidesteps all personal responsibility? Uh, no. I'm not buying it one bit. And since I don't buy it, it just negates all the appeal an unreliable narrator generally has.

Additionally, I think the feminist angle was far too overdone and intrusive.

For instance, when they surround Kinnear's grave with a white picket fence, and Nancy's with a black - first, that seems rather implausible that they'd bother with black paint, when, IMO, they'd be more likely to just leave it unpainted. But second, readers are capable of drawing our conclusions from that ourselves and we don't need the text to spell out that this is due to double standards with regard to slut shaming. This happens multiple times - including with Mrs. Jordan's letters at the end of the book.

Also, it seemed nearly every man was just an ass wanting to take advantage of women in general, and many of the high placed women were just enablers of the men's despicable behavior. Really, the only decent guy that has more than a minor role in this is Jamie Walsh. But even with him - how would he have noticed Grace's stockings that day? Given the typical dress of that era - near ground length skirts - there wouldn't have been hardly any of her stockings showing. So, either that's made up, or he went out of the way to stare at her ankles - which wasn't exactly proper in that era. It's later excused by the evil lawyers that made him lie in court, but that was the excuse for 99% of the things said in court and it's worn thin by the end of the book. Plus, him (view spoiler)
That's yet another jackass move by a man. And a book filled with nothing but jackass men just doesn't work for me.

While I generally like feminist angles in books, I think this particular one goes way too far and ends up being counter productive. ...more

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Jun 07, 2020 Tracey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, 2020-read

When Margaret is good she is amazing isn’t she? Absolutely could not put this audio book down. Immersive story telling.

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Jan 11, 2018 Clio rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, immigrant, psychology, mental-illness, women-writers, classics, catching-up-on-classics, 2018-women

3 stars for I liked it because I am really trying to reserve 4 and 5 stars more this year and also because I really did have trouble getting through the first 100 pages until there was a more consistent narrative thread.

I was bored by the preponderance of correspondence in the beginning and I didn't think it got good until Grace was actually talking to Simon. Even then it was sort of one of those modern women-authored books where all of the characters seem like awful people with awful things ha ...more

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Feb 14, 2018 Basma Parkar rated it really liked it

I watched this series a couple of months ago and I thought it was amazing. I immediately bought the book but did not want to read it immediately because I didn't want the series to colour my opinion of the book. When I thought a reasonable amount of time had passed, I picked up the book and started reading.
The series was very close to the story in the book, albeit the book has more detailed. I enjoyed it as much as I did the series, so that was good. ...more

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