ALIAS GRACE (REISSUE)

Book Review: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood:"Sometimes I whisper it over to myself: Murderess. Murderess. It rustles, like a taffeta skirt along the floor." -Grace Marks. The story fictionalises the notorious 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery by two servants of the household, Grace Marks and James McDermott. McDermott was hanged but Grace escaped the gallows and sentenced to life imprisonment. She also spent some years in an asylum after an emotional breakdown. She gave three different accounts of the killings whereas McDermott gave two. The whole incident stayed a mistery and Grace an enigma.The author has taken a fragment of thread from the reality and created another thread of narrative with a fictional doctor, Simon Jordan, who researches the case, and has tried to fill the terrible gaps of reality with fiction, and the end result is a beautiful patchwork quilt. The book gives a clear picture regarding the state of the oppressed lower class especially the lesser sex during that period. The lasting impression for me is the trauma and pain suffered by Grace while emigrating, which began at the ship and ended nowhere.The book is writing in multiple narration and quilt is a particularly apt metaphor of the various narrative perspectives. Quilt is the running theme of the book as each chapter is named after a quilt pattern and there is also illustration of the respective pattern; and Grace kept quilting while sharing her story throughout the book.Sometimes a book has an inbuilt character which keeps you longing for more, which keeps you feeling unsorted, perturbed, unfulfilled, yet somewhat satisfied; Alias Grace is that book, a 560 page long conundrum, which is bound to haunt you long after you turn the last pages.

Based on a true murder committed sometime in the mid-18th century, its a masterful recreation of the crime. The characterization is nothing short of brilliant. At this rate, I will soon have quite a stack of "Atwood's books.

Im not half as qualified to write about a brilliant author as Margaret Atwood. Made for a great, great read. I have no reason not to give it all the stars. Quality of the book is good too.

The pace drags through the first 60 pages or so and the plot is rather predictable, but I found myself intrigued by Atwood's clever manipulation of tense, and am glad I kept reading. This is yet another example of Margaret Atwood's unique and insightful style, though I must admit I felt rather betrayed by the ending. A reader expects that all loose ends be tied by the third act, and Atwood has left one too many lingering questions that just cannot be chalked up to "leaving it to the reader's imagination". For this reason, and also because it took so long for the pace to finally pick up, I rate 'Alias Grace' 3 stars. I would recommend it to writers as a fantastic lesson in tense manipulation and evocative description, but that's all. Unless you're an Atwood fan, skip this one.

Margaret Atwood has a beautiful way of describing a twisted terrible mystery. The book is very intriguing and keeps your attention built up at all times. A lengthy read but worth every minute of it.

Very good book.At the end too, we are given the benefit of doubt, whether Grace was guilty of the heinous crime or whether she was an accomplice.

The book has a little torn cover and broken spine. In reading condition , looks battered.

Good quality product...binding is good....worth for money

This novel was hard to read because of the hardships faced by the main character, but it was absolutely captivating and had a surprise ending.

Calidad muy bien.

As with many books, you need to adapt to style of writing, persevere and then you wonder why you worried. With MA (&similar writers), trust that you will get over that "hump" .....they are brilliant authors for a reason.So......thought provoking, fascinatingly sad actually......was she schizophrenic? Was she duplicitous? What would you have done? Was wearing a dead person's dress proof of murder or instead a sign of life at the time?Many people will interpret in different ways....but that's the brilliance of an author.As for Netflix version, I'll be interested....Will it be my interpretation/ view OR a different one of equal resonance?Whatever, a great read, just like THMT, and thank goodness we have the opportunity to read, in between the not-so-different slavery of motherhood......which is unpaid.

Roman von einer Nobel Preisträgerin verfasst!

"Just because something is written, sir, doesn't mean it's the sacrosanct truth." I like to begin my reflection on this book by Margaret Atwood with this sentence. I know and appreciate the writer's narrative and stylistic skills having read many of her books. This also captured me because, through Grace's story, Atwood, in my opinion, wants to show that there is never a single truth but that there are as many points of view as there are the points of view, the prejudices of those who seek or take it for granted .