Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace: A Historical Fiction Novel Exploring Grace Marks' Mysterious Story

Brainburn: Stared out slow but in the end I was glad I read this book and enjoyed it.

United States on Aug 29, 2023

Sanjie: I enjoyed reading this book and was surprised by the twists towards the end. I found some of the narration by Grace a bit long winded. It did show how females were given very little consideration and were often badly treated. It seemed that no one had much respect for anyone else, whatever their station in life. I will be looking to read other books by Margaret Atwood.

United Kingdom on Aug 29, 2023

Pete Foley: Kind of a weird complaint, but the paper used for this book is so thin that you can see the opposite page's print through the paper. It's a bit distracting!

Australia on Aug 23, 2023

Kindle Customer: Atwood is a great story teller. Whether it is historical fiction or speculative fiction, she is able to bring to life all of her characters and weave a delightful and intriguing story. She is by far one of the best writers of this modern era.

United States on Aug 05, 2023

Courtney Marie: I read a lot of Margaret Atwood in college (English major over here), and this is by far one of her most beautiful pieces. I first saw the Netflix series, which I also highly recommend, and just had to read this book. She outdid herself with this one!

United States on Jul 07, 2023

Kindle Customer: Shamefully my first Atwood in decades. I now know what all the fuss is about as she can certainly write beautifully and I won't be leaving it so long before trying some more of her work.

This novel is based on true historical events and tells the story of Grace Marks an infamous murderess (or was she!) of the 19th century.

I certainly learnt a lot about religious beliefs and practices of the time and the changing attitudes towards mental illness.

However I did find some aspects of the sub plot a little hard to believe but maybe that was all part of Atwood's plan to add an extra layer of very dark humour to the story. I will leave it up to you, the potential future reader to decide.

United Kingdom on Jan 18, 2023

Barbara: Canada, 1843. Grace Marks ha appena compiuto sedici anni quando viene condannata a morte ‒ condanna commutata poi in ergastolo ‒ per concorso in omicidio. L’omicidio è quello del suo datore di lavoro, il proprietario terriero Thomas Kinnear e della di lui governante (e amante), Nancy Montgomery. Con Grace viene condannato a morte, e questa volta senza sconti di pena, anche il suo presunto complice James McDermott. Ma la giovane Grace, creatura silenziosa, dagli occhi chiari e dal viso puro, quasi angelico, sospettata di insanità mentale, debolezza spirituale, ritenuta una bugiarda ingannatrice, una subdola calcolatrice assassina, o, a seconda dei casi, una vittima della società e un diavolo tentatore, è colpevole o è innocente? È vero che non ricorda nulla, dell’omicidio? Nel frattempo, sconta la sua pena, in carcere, cucendo. In molti la vorrebbero vedere libera, primo fra tutti il giovane Simon Jordan, laureato in medicina e specializzato in quella che è la branca nascente della psichiatria. Cosa nascondono gli occhi profondi della bella Grace? Cosa hanno visto?

Margaret Atwood, nata ad Ottawa e cresciuta a Toronto, è la scrittrice canadese contemporanea...

Italy on Jul 18, 2018

Nix: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood tells the true story of 19th century alleged murderess Grace Marks.

At age 15/16, Grace Marks was convicted of killing her employer and his mistress with a fellow member of “the help”, James McDermott. Grace’s trial was highly publicized across Canada, the US, and Europe (she was an Amanda Knox of her time, if you will, more on that later.) Her story soon became both sensationalized and romanticized, and the true story seemed to fall by the wayside as the years went on.

Throughout Alias Grace, Atwood illustrates a system inherently skewed against someone like Grace because of her sex, age, and socio-economic status. At one point, a character notes that if Grace had come from a wealthy family her “madness” wouldn’t have been handled as it truly was. After the murder trial, Grace’s death sentence was changed to life in prison. However, for the first part of her imprisonment she was committed to an asylum, where Atwood alludes to abuse and sexual assault. I do not doubt it of that period, especially with a woman in that situation.

Alias Grace is a framed story, with Grace recounting her side of the story to young Dr....

United States on Jun 30, 2017

Cynthia Parten: "Gone mad is what they say, and sometimes Run mad, as if mad is a direction, like west; as if mad is a different house you could step into, or a separate country entirely. But when you go mad, you don't go any other place, you stay where you are. And somebody else comes in."

I had no idea until I read the author's note that this story was based on a true story. Margaret Atwood manages to create such a rich back story of Grace Marks and the painstaking detail she took with the research into this story is obvious. The book starts after the murders when Grace is in prison. The other man accused of the murders, James McDermot, is hung as his punishment for his role in the crime. Before he was executed, he left a written confession that the murders were entirely Grace's idea. A therapist, Dr. Simon Jordan, wishes to interview her to determine her innocence for a possible pardon request. Everyone around Grace, from the fellow prisoners to the Governor's wife to the Reverend to Dr. Jordan has very strong feelings about Grace's innocence. But who is right? Did Grace Marks murder Nancy and Thomas in cold blood? Was she actually a victim of James McDermot? Did she lose all memory of...

United States on Mar 04, 2015

Jenny Lloyd author of Leap the Wild Water: This novel is a work of genius interweaving real-life accounts with shifting narratives, extracts of poetry and newspaper reports of the time. But the real genius lies not in the narrative structure but the way Atwood's character draws us in and strings us along, evoking our sympathies with the tragic account of her short life prior to being jailed; and all the while, like the psychiatrist Simon Jordan, we are not certain whether she is guilty or not. Is Grace the cold, calculating murderess she is accused of being, stringing us/Simon along without revealing the one thing we want to know beyond everything else? Or was she an innocent victim, wrongly accused by media and public out to seek justice and revenge? In my experience,only people who have something to hide evade telling the truth.
Simon Jordan is drawn into her web and becomes frustrated, confused and uncertain just as I felt on reading Grace's account. Simon Jordan gives up trying to understand Grace and seems to have been taken to the edge of breakdown by her.
I was left with the feeling that Grace was extraordinarily astute, intelligent, charismatic and manipulative. Grace knew just how to play people and so does...

United Kingdom on Apr 19, 2013