I just finished Alias Grace a couple of days ago and I really enjoyed it. I’ll admit I jumped on the bandwagon and read this because the Netflix show looks interesting, but I’m glad I did.
This novel is brilliant if you love unreliable narrators. The fact is that nobody really knows whether the real Grace Marks was innocent or guilty of the murders for which she was imprisoned and then pardoned, and Atwood doesn’t try to make her history fit into a neat box, which is so much better than if she’d come down on one side or the other. So as a reader, you have to question everything Grace says as she tells her story to Dr Jordan, and always keep in mind that it’s only one version of the tale. She is always partly obscured, but clearly smart and strong, and I found her a truly compelling character. I loved the wealth of historical detail, and the way Atwood structured the novel like one written in the nineteenth century, often made up of letters. One thing I wasn’t expecting was the supernatural element: hints at ghostly goings-on reflecting the craze for mesmerism and seances at the time. But it was mostly a pleasant surprise, further muddying the waters of what was true and what imagined. I also thought it was brilliant how Atwood emphasised the role of the press in what we perceive as truth, including real news clippings about the murders and questioning whether the sources could be trusted. The sections headed with quilt designs with hidden meanings, the fact that Grace sits and gives her account whilst sewing, and all the intimate details of her life as a maid mean her experience as a working woman takes centre stage, and in fact the major threat to women at the time - becoming pregnant without the protection of marriage - is crucial not just to Grace’s story but possibly to the question of her guilt. Atwood puts women at the centre of her narrative. Even when the novel shifts to Dr Simon Jordan’s perspective, he is absolutely obsessed with the women in his life, from his fretting mother, to his oddly alluring landlady, to Grace herself (even his annoyance with Faith, the woman his mother wishes him to marry, is focused almost vehemently on her sewing skills). I didn’t enjoy Simon’s perspective as much as Grace’s, however, and when there were large gaps between her chapters I did get a bit impatient. It would probably have been an equally enjoyable novel if it was entirely from Grace’s perspective. I also think the supernatural side of things did get in the way of the general tone of the novel at times, but I can see what Atwood was doing with incorporating those elements. It’s hard to say more without spoilers, but my conclusion is that Alias Grace was a great read and I can’t wait to watch the adaptation to compare. I still like The Handmaid’s Tale more, but I’m also eager to read more Atwood soon! My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️