{"id":31,"date":"2008-07-03T01:19:25","date_gmt":"2008-07-03T05:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookse.wordpress.com\/?p=31"},"modified":"2017-09-22T16:54:38","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T20:54:38","slug":"margaret-atwoods-alias-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2008\/07\/03\/margaret-atwoods-alias-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Margaret Atwood: Alias Grace<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” padding_right=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=””][fusion_imageframe image_id=”20947″ style_type=”none” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”none” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” alt=”” link=”http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Header-2-1-e1493098728843.jpg[\/fusion_imageframe][fusion_title margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” size=”3″ content_align=”left” style_type=”underline solid” sep_color=””]<\/p>\n

Alias Grace<\/span>
\n<\/em><\/strong> by Margaret Atwood (1996)<\/span>
\n Anchor (1997) <\/span>
\n468 pp<\/span><\/p>\n

[\/fusion_title][fusion_text]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

[fusion_dropcap boxed=”no” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=”#003366″]I[\/fusion_dropcap] always have a good time while I’m reading a Margaret Atwood novel, but up to now only The Handmaid’s Tale<\/em> sticks with me as an incredible novel, one which should be read.\u00a0I had high hopes for Alias Grace<\/em>\u00a0since it is based on a true story and Atwood takes us back to the 1850s this time rather than into the ugly future.\u00a0In fact, I had been holding off on reading it, almost as a treat. It only left me somewhat satisfied.<\/p>\n

Once again, while reading Atwood, I was pulled into the story quickly. Her prose is smooth, with few stumbling blocks (more on the stumbling blocks later).\u00a0The story contains\u00a0an exciting premise, has conversational characters, and is incredibly clever.\u00a0But in the end, I was disappointed.\u00a0Doesn’t that always happen, though, when you expect a lot?<\/p>\n

Alias Grace<\/em> starts out with Grace already\u00a0in prison.\u00a0A decade and a half earlier she was involved in the murder of her employer, Thomas Kinnear, and his housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery.\u00a0James McDermott,\u00a0a disgruntled employee,\u00a0was hanged for the crime. While Grace was sentenced to the same fate, her lawyer cleverly pleaded her sentence down due to insanity.<\/p>\n

Cleverly?\u00a0Well, maybe it was the simple truth.\u00a0After all, Grace has exhibited some peculiar behavior, and she says she doesn’t remember anything.\u00a0Or is she really innocent, just a victim of circumstances (which just happend to be controlled by single-minded men).<\/p>\n

Onto the scene comes Simon Jordan, a doctor who wants to help Grace remember.\u00a0His motives are not pure — he wants to get his place in the science books.\u00a0Exonerating Grace is incidental, though he does begin to feel a strange attraction to Grace . . . but that and many more “improper” attractions are part of the subcurrent.\u00a0Those men are all after one thing!\u00a0Thankfully some of them have the capacity to exercise self-control in the\u00a0presence of such a temptress. (Yes, sometimes it got a little heavy-handed — but it is<\/em> important, and I’m glad Atwood is skilled enough to present this issue in her books without sounding bitter and pedantic (most of the time)).<\/p>\n

Atwood builds suspense by inserting passages from newspaper articles and from the actual confessions, and these seem to contradict not only what Grace says but also the pleasant, innocent (though no longer na\u00efve) ethos she builds while telling her story. Knowing that Atwood usually has a clever way of reconciling seeming contradictions, I was pulled along by more than the smooth prose.<\/p>\n

Then again, sometimes the prose actually got in the way. Most of the time, Atwood is very insightful and sly, and she injects this\u00a0into her prose frequently in pleasing ways:<\/p>\n

\n

Once you start feeling sorry for yourself they’ve got you where they want you.\u00a0Then they send for the Chaplain.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh come to my arms, poor wandering soul.\u00a0There is more joy in Heaven over the one lost lamb.\u00a0Ease your troubled mind.\u00a0Kneel at my feet.\u00a0Wring your hands in anguish.\u00a0Describe how conscience tortures you day and night, and how the eyes of your victims follow you around the room, burning like red-hot coals.\u00a0Shed tears of remorse.\u00a0Confess, confess.\u00a0Let me forgive and pity. Let me get up a Petition for you.\u00a0Tell me all.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then what did he do?\u00a0Oh shocking.\u00a0And then what?<\/span><\/p>\n

The left hand or the right?<\/span><\/p>\n

How far up, exactly?<\/span><\/p>\n

Show me where.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But too often she draws attention to her wit by ending a paragraph with a short sentence that often begins with something like “And.” It’s not always bad to draw such attention to wit, but after so many snappy punches, I start to flinch.<\/p>\n

So would I have liked Alias Grace<\/em> if I hadn’t built it up in my mind? Who can say? I think I would have felt much the same as I do now. There were some parts where I got a bit tired of Grace’s story. Fifteen years in prison, and she still remembers everything <\/em>but the murders. Sure, that makes her story all the more suspect, and there are interesting issues there, but at times it was anticlimactic.<\/p>\n

[\/fusion_text][fusion_builder_row_inner][fusion_builder_column_inner type=”1_2″ layout=”1_2″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”0″ border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all”][fusion_text]<\/p>\n