Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Very Good indeed, a great read I thought - I couldn't put it down.
Enigmatic, yet clever and touching all at the same time with a touch of wry
humour.This is the best Atwood I have read up to now - Blind Assassin &
Handmaids Tale being the other two. Based on a true story Atwood has drawn
from it a tale that is never dry but grips the reader - there is a type of
"Whodunnit" running through the novel.

A brief synopsis with mild spoilers

Alias Grace is based on a true story of a double murder in 19th century
Canada. Grace Marks is a young girl, an Irish immigrant who, leaving her
violent drunkard father ends up as a housemaid in a large house. After many
adventures, well told in the narrative she ends up in a house far out in the
country where there is an illicit relationship going on between the
housekeeper and the master of the house. It ends in tragedy with the master
and housekeeper murdered and Grace and a stable hand fleeing the scene. They
are caught inevitably and the Stable hand is hanged - Grace is given life in
prison but her guilt is never really established - this is the thrust of the
story - Grace as Victim or Weak child under the influence of an evil man.

Much of Graces story is told as flashback to a Doctor of Psychology who
visits her as she works in the Prison Governors house. The story of her
early life and the dreadful voyage to Canada on those early 19th century
immigrant sailing ships is told in beautiful expansive detail all seen
through the eyes of Grace as a young child. Her early life as a housemaid is
told in exquisite yet heartrending detail , her friendship with the older
and wiser Mary Whitney figures highly and adds much to the story both then
and later in the story. I love the historical detail , the description of
life "below stairs" and the general description of Canada. This makes one
feel so much for Grace; there is much to read between the lines as she tries
to understand the world around her.

Doctor Jordan the Psychiatrist who interviews her has a story of his own
running in parallel with the main narrative and there is much humour here -
I found some of the descriptions of his surly maid and the awful cooking
laugh out loud funny which helped a lot with some of Graces story being so
dark. The 19th century approach to Prison, Asylum and the idea of
psychoanalysing prisoners - mad or bad etc is excellently approached and it
never slows the story.

This is based on a true story but one thing is clear there is an ambiguity
as to whether Grace was guilty of murder or not. Her traumatic experiences
of death and abuse had left her mentally scarred but whether she was "mad or
bad" was never established at the time. Without giving too much away I feel
that Grace may have been slightly schizophrenic or at least displayed some
signs of schizophrenia. There is much in the story of Grace and the murders
to lead the reader in many directions.

This is surprisingly light to read and the 550 pages don't seem long
enough - no one should be put off by the historical aspect to the story as
this is never an impediment to the story, it actually gives it a wonderful
reality aspect to the story. Atwood skilfully handles many issues raised
here about the role of "the lower orders" as the phrase goes and the
relationship of class to women in the 19th century .All in all a brilliant
work and one I would recommend to those who may have been put off by
Handmaids Tale - the clear cut yet enigmatic story replaces the many doubts
in Handmaids Tale. I have read criticism that the ending is weak , but as it
is a historical based novel a large ending would I feel have been
inappropriate. The novel has much to commend it - entered for the 1996
Booker it lost to Last Orders - short listed with it was Everyman for
Himself by Beryl Bainbridge , that won the Whitbread prize. In my opinion
this is better than either of these though this is a personal judgement.

A good read - get it now!!

"notme" <never RemoveThis @here.ok> wrote in message
news:c92jpe$97f$1@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...
 > Very Good indeed, a great read I thought - I couldn't put it down.
 > Enigmatic, yet clever and touching all at the same time with a touch of
wry
 > humour.This is the best Atwood I have read up to now - Blind Assassin &
 > Handmaids Tale being the other two. Based on a true story Atwood has drawn
 > from it a tale that is never dry but grips the reader - there is a type of
 > "Whodunnit" running through the novel.
 >
 > A brief synopsis with mild spoilers
 >
 > Alias Grace is based on a true story of a double murder in 19th century
 > Canada. Grace Marks is a young girl, an Irish immigrant who, leaving her
 > violent drunkard father ends up as a housemaid in a large house. After
many
 > adventures, well told in the narrative she ends up in a house far out in
the
 > country where there is an illicit relationship going on between the
 > housekeeper and the master of the house. It ends in tragedy with the
master
 > and housekeeper murdered and Grace and a stable hand fleeing the scene.
They
 > are caught inevitably and the Stable hand is hanged - Grace is given life
in
 > prison but her guilt is never really established - this is the thrust of
the
 > story - Grace as Victim or Weak child under the influence of an evil man.
 >
 > Much of Graces story is told as flashback to a Doctor of Psychology who
 > visits her as she works in the Prison Governors house. The story of her
 > early life and the dreadful voyage to Canada on those early 19th century
 > immigrant sailing ships is told in beautiful expansive detail all seen
 > through the eyes of Grace as a young child. Her early life as a housemaid
is
 > told in exquisite yet heartrending detail , her friendship with the older
 > and wiser Mary Whitney figures highly and adds much to the story both then
 > and later in the story. I love the historical detail , the description of
 > life "below stairs" and the general description of Canada. This makes one
 > feel so much for Grace; there is much to read between the lines as she
tries
 > to understand the world around her.
 >
 > Doctor Jordan the Psychiatrist who interviews her has a story of his own
 > running in parallel with the main narrative and there is much humour
here -
 > I found some of the descriptions of his surly maid and the awful cooking
 > laugh out loud funny which helped a lot with some of Graces story being so
 > dark. The 19th century approach to Prison, Asylum and the idea of
 > psychoanalysing prisoners - mad or bad etc is excellently approached and
it
 > never slows the story.
 >
 > This is based on a true story but one thing is clear there is an ambiguity
 > as to whether Grace was guilty of murder or not. Her traumatic experiences
 > of death and abuse had left her mentally scarred but whether she was "mad
or
 > bad" was never established at the time. Without giving too much away I
feel
 > that Grace may have been slightly schizophrenic or at least displayed some
 > signs of schizophrenia. There is much in the story of Grace and the
murders
 > to lead the reader in many directions.
 >
 > This is surprisingly light to read and the 550 pages don't seem long
 > enough - no one should be put off by the historical aspect to the story as
 > this is never an impediment to the story, it actually gives it a wonderful
 > reality aspect to the story. Atwood skilfully handles many issues raised
 > here about the role of "the lower orders" as the phrase goes and the
 > relationship of class to women in the 19th century .All in all a brilliant
 > work and one I would recommend to those who may have been put off by
 > Handmaids Tale - the clear cut yet enigmatic story replaces the many
doubts
 > in Handmaids Tale. I have read criticism that the ending is weak , but as
it
 > is a historical based novel a large ending would I feel have been
 > inappropriate. The novel has much to commend it - entered for the 1996
 > Booker it lost to Last Orders - short listed with it was Everyman for
 > Himself by Beryl Bainbridge , that won the Whitbread prize. In my opinion
 > this is better than either of these though this is a personal judgement.
 >
 > A good read - get it now!!
 >
I'm reading it now. What do you think Atwood is doing with the shifts in
verb tense? Is she just trying to differentiate between the story's past
(Grace's tale) and her telling of it, plus Jordan's story, etc. Or does
Atwood just really like writing in the present tense (as in The Handmaid's
Tale). I thought when she used the first-person present tense in Handmaid
that Atwood was trying to emphasize Offred's captivity - the events in her
narrative are not something that can be put behind Offred, they are
immediate and therefore inescapable.

But I don't get a similar effect in Alias Grace: most of the present tense
work is being done with Jordan. And, as much as the women around Jordan all
want to trap him one way or another, he is still the freer of the two
principle subjects of the narrative. What gives?<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->