Alias Grace

Summary (from the publisher): In Alias Grace, bestselling author Margaret Atwood has written her most captivating, disturbing, and ultimately satisfying work since The Handmaid's Tale. She takes us back in time and into the life 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, Thomas Kinnear, and Nancy Montgomery, his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace 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 while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories? Is Grace a female fiend? A bloodthirsty femme fatale? Or is she the victim of circumstances?

 

Review: In Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood presents a work of historical fiction based on the real life figure of Grace Marks, who was arrested and tried for murder in the 1840s. Convicted of assisting in the murders of her employer Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper and mistress Nancy Montgomery, Grace is serving a life sentence. Dr. Simon Jordan, a young doctor in the field of mental illness, has come to Toronto to evaluate Grace and try to prove her seemingly hidden memories from the day of the murders, but quickly becomes overwhelmed by Grace's account of events.

 

This is my second reading of this novel. It is distinct from most Atwood books in that it is both historical fiction and based on a true story. Atwood uses the historical ambiguity of Grace's guilt or innocence to her advantage in this novel. The overarching theme of the novel is the reliability of first-person accounts and the thin distance between Grace being an innocent victim or a cunning villain. Grace herself heavily emphasizes that she is picking and choosing what she presents to the world: "I didn't see why I shouldn't make it come out in a better way; and as long as I told no one of what was in my mind, there was no one to hold me to account, or correct me" (238). She appears to be motivated by a desire to please and interest the doctor and to hold his attention rather than a desire to provide the full truth, and Dr. Jordan admits that Grace has been unreliable in the past, providing different versions of events. "He has an uneasy sense that the very plentitude of her recollections may be a sort of distraction, a way of drawing the mind away from some hidden but essential fact, like the dainty flowers planted over a grave" (185).

 

Throughout, as she tells her life story to Dr. Jordan and comes closer and closer to discussing the day of the murders, she remains bent over her sewing with her gaze averted. Even in revealing her story, she keeps much of her true self hidden from both the reader and Dr. Jordan. The section titles of the novel refer to different quilt patterns, which are pieced together from individual patches. Grace is reported to be an excellent seamstress, but appears to be one with her words as well; she is adept at sorting through her memories and sharing what will most endear her to her listener.

 

A propulsive novel that probes the nature of truth, memory, narration, psychology, and manipulation. Although seemingly powerless, Grace Marks uses the one thing left to her in her imprisonment - her voice - to her advantage. 

 

Stars: 4