Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

I am a huge Margaret Atwood fan and several of her books are among my favorites of all time. So when it came to selecting a book for Women’s History month for my joint reading challenge (my partner and I are reading and discussing a book each month), I immediately thought of this book. I’m late to reviewing it since I wanted to pair the review with the series and it took us over a month to get to the series. I had read Alias Grace when it first came out but didn’t remember too much about it. I tend to gravitate more toward her less conventional (e.g., dystopian, genre bending) books than her straight historical fiction novels. My partner had not read any of her books, and I was a bit tired of some of the other types of genres we had picked in prior months (I needed a serious break from books like Black Leopard, Red Wolf – sorry James). So it was the perfect time for us to read an Atwood novel. Here’s what I thought.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Published: 1996
Publisher: Doubleday
Rating: ★★★★.5
Order/Purchase it here: Alias Grace

Alias Grace is probably more than well known with readers of this blog. I assume most of you have already read it. So I will spare you a long synopsis of the plot. Suffice it to say that the novel is based on a real life murder case in Canada in the mid-1800s. Young Irish Grace Marks and her fellow servant, James McDermott are accused, and convicted of, murdering their employer and his housekeeper. Grace is sentenced to life in prison. Her memories about the murder are clouded (or so she claims) and various court documents and media outlets suggest conflicting accounts of what really happened. Was Grace the orchestrator of the murder, a reluctant accomplice, or an innocent woman manipulated by her co-accused?

Dr. Jordan is a visiting physician who is interested in Grace as he studies mental health in order to open his own psychiatric hospital back in Massachusetts. He hopes to uncover the truth behind the story. Through interviews between Jordan and Marks, court documents, testimony, and media prints, the book uncovers events leading up to and following the murder.

The Book: I loved the book. I remember liking it the first time I had read it, but I was perhaps too young at the time to truly appreciate it. A perfect pick for women’s history month (even if I do pat myself on the back for selecting it). It’s a fascinating portrayal of a working-class woman and an exploration of the role of trauma in memories, violence, and character formation. I especially appreciated the ways in which Atwood leaves the question of her guilt or innocence as something for the reader to interpret. The intertwining of media portrayals of Grace as an innocent child, a simpleton, a sociopath and a madwoman are fascinating. The ways in which women are seen and described in the context of violent acts is fascinating and Atwood forces you into speculating about Grace, in similar ways to all the others in her life – making us complicit.

The Series: I almost always feel disappointed by screen adaptations of books but this was an exception. The series was quite good and the acting was amazing. Sarah Gadon is perfect as Grace and the opening scene contains some of the most brilliant acting I’ve seen in a long time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a clip of this scene but if you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean. The series is quite faithful to the novel and maintains the same air of ambiguity although to a lesser degree than the book. The book is better, the the series is solid and worth watching.

Have you read the book and/or watched the series? What did you think? Was Grace guilty or innocent? Was she insane or fully aware? Let me know what you thought of either the book or the series.