Alias Grace

by Margaret Atwood | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 1860492592 Global Overview for this book
Registered by freelunch of Cairns, Queensland Australia on 5/4/2007
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by freelunch from Cairns, Queensland Australia on Friday, May 4, 2007
Margaret Atwood takes us back in time and into the life and mind of one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of the nineteenth century. Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer, the wealthy Thomas Kinnear, and of Nancy Montgomery, his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence after a stint in Toronto's lunatic asylum, Grace herself claims to have no memory of the murders.

Dr. Simon Jordan, an up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness, is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story, from her family's difficult passage out of Ireland into Canada, to her time as a maid in Thomas Kinnear's household. As he brings Grace closer and closer to the day she cannot remember, he hears of the turbulent relationship between Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery, and of the alarming behavior of Grace's fellow servant, James McDermott. Jordan is drawn to Grace, but he is also baffled by her. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories? Is Grace a female fiend, a bloodthirsty femme fatale? Or is she a victim of circumstances?

Alias Grace is a beautifully crafted work of the imagination that reclaims a profoundly mysterious and disturbing story from the past century. With compassion, an unsentimental lyricism, and her customary narrative virtuosity, Margaret Atwood mines the often convoluted relationships between men and women, and between the affluent and those without position.

Journal Entry 2 by freelunch from Cairns, Queensland Australia on Saturday, July 28, 2007
This is the first Margaret Atwood book I've completed (I set The Edible Woman aside a few months ago as I was unable to get into it.) It was certainly well-written but I expected a more interesting story - this one felt predictable and overly drawn-out.

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sent to tqd as part of the Make Me Read It - Australia Only relay at bookobsessed.com

Journal Entry 3 by tqd from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Friday, August 3, 2007
Turned up in the mail today, thanks freelunch! (Or maybe it turned up yesterday, at any rate, we only noticed it today tucked away at the unfashionable end of the verandah.)

I shall get to this one day... er, soon... I hope...

UPDATE 25-OCT-2007: Reserved for bookworm76 (swapping for Peter Carey's Jack Maggs).

Journal Entry 4 by tqd from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, April 10, 2008
Well, I find it hard to go past the blurb on the front for a summary of this book: 'Oh brilliant! I cannot rave enough... with its explosive mixture of sex, murder and class conflict, Alias Grace is an absolute winner'

Right on.

Only she forgot the battle of the sexes (or whatever that would be called in Victorian times). And the fabulous science (or pseudo-science). Gotta love "mesmerism" and "Braidian neuro-hypnotism". Hurrah for shonky charlatans! I shall definitely miss hanging out in this world that Atwood created, I was really enjoying it far more than I thought I would. (Freelunch, like you, I find her stuff rather patchy. I cannot get into Surfacing, but I thought The Handmaid's Tale was utterly brilliant, and The Blind Assassin was a ripsnorter, although The Robber Bride just seemed a bit wet at times, although well written.)

My complaints would be that I didn't quite like Dr Jordan's slide into chaos (although we did get to meet his mother that way, and she was utterly brilliant, not the weak willed pathetic woman he thought she was) and the ending in America felt rather touched by Victorian sentimentality. But I suppose it was more the people around Grace who were all filled with Victorian sentimentality, Grace remained a terribly sensible practical woman until the end. (If only James had listened to her, they would have gotten away with it! But then we wouldn't have had this book.) Although I like how towards the end, when I was mostly convinced of Grace's innocence, that she threw in enough doubt to make me feel rather uncomfortable.

This was promised many (many!) months ago to bookworm76. I shall pop it in the post to her as soon as possible. Thanks for sending me this book in the first place, freelunch!

UPDATE 12 Apr 2008: And in the post to bookworm76 on Friday! Happy (belated) reading!

Journal Entry 5 by bookworm76 from Chermside, Queensland Australia on Friday, October 2, 2009
I have only just realised that I haven't said that I had this. I found it in a clean up - Sorry tqd.

Journal Entry 6 by bookworm76 at Centro Toombul Shopping Centre in Toombul, Queensland Australia on Saturday, March 25, 2017

Released 7 yrs ago (3/25/2017 UTC) at Centro Toombul Shopping Centre in Toombul, Queensland Australia

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Taking this along to the next Brisbane bookcrossing meetup. If not picked up I will leave it somewhere.

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