Margaret Atwood – Alias Grace
About eight years ago, I read pretty much everything Margaret Atwood had written and loved it all apart from one book.
Ever since, I have been periodically thinking, must read that again and see what I was missing. So I took it with me to the Hay Festival, sat down in the deckchair, started reading and then….Oh. This is not the one I meant. What I MEANT to re-read was Cat’s Eye. Oops.
But never mind, Alias Grace will be fine too.
Alias Grace is based on the true story of a double murder in the 1840′s. A servant called James McDermott went at his employers with an axe and a gun: chop, bang, done. But did Grace Marks help him? Did she egg him on? Did she make him do it?
The public wants to think so, because a salacious housemaid misusing her feminine wiles is a much sexier proposition than a boring old servant going off his head. But other people want to believe in feminine innocence and unspoiledness and purity. Grace isn’t telling what happened, because she conveniently can’t remember. So they bring in Dr Jordan to use his new-fangled modern scientific methods to try and dig up the truth using vegetables as suggestive props.
Alias Grace is perfectly readable; full of multiple layers and ambigiuity and feminist social critique, as you would expect from the Goddess Atwood. But it is not my favourite Atwood. It’s just not as subtle as some of her other books. Not one single man is able to see Grace without falling in lust and wanting to fiddle around with her petticoats. Yes ok, this is a stuffy society riddled with sexual hypocrisy and double standards, I get it already.
There are a few too many portentous and meaning-stuffed dreams for me – and the denouement/explanation is a little on the ludicrous side. Perhaps that’s the point – you are never supposed to be quite sure what happened – but I’m not that interested in mystical, spiritual seances and hysteria. Alias Grace reminds me a little of Sarah Waters’ Affinity, but I much prefer that book. It was more spooky and thrilling.
On the back of this book, a critic has written ‘this is surely as far as a novel can go.’ What is this supposed to mean? Rubbish.
Posted on June 8, 2011, in Uncategorized and tagged alias grace, books, margaret atwood, reading. Bookmark the permalink. 13 Comments.
It is in my TBR list since I discovered it. Maybe this summer… Thanks!
I should probably re-read this. It was the first Atwood I ever read, and I think I was around fourteen. I totally loved it, but don’t really remember it. Now I’ve managed to get my sister into the whole loving Atwood thing, maybe she’ll buy it and lend it to me,as my buying privileges have been revoked until I read another 68 books that I own…. :-s
Also, ‘as far as a novel can go’? what??? That makes absolutely no sense. I don’t see that there’s any limit to where the novel can go, really. It depends what kind of novel you want to write. Whoever wrote that should seriously reconsider being a critic I think…
That is exactly why bloggers write better reviews – we at least try and write in coherent sentences!
I haven’t re-read Alias Grace for a long time. I usually pick up Cat’s Eye or the Robber Bride first for a re-read, but Alias Grace is on my shelf, so maybe I should give it some attention.
I have to be in just the right mood for Atwood, and Cat’s Eye is one I did not finish the first time I picked it up. I haven’t tried Alias Grace yet, and I fear anything will have a hard time living up to The Robber Bride in my eyes.
I get that – The Robber Bride is really fantastic
This is one of those books I own and really want to read, but just haven’t had the time yet.
Although it is not my favourite, it is definitely in the top list. I really enjoyed reading it the first time and even more the second time. The title of my MA thesis is a quotation from it: “Just because a thing has been written down, sir, does not mean it is God’s truth”; I think it sums up the book quite well. I would actually consider the hypnotism seances and the like as part of a critique of the medical discourse, especially when taken in the 19th-century context… As you say, it is multi-layered and i think that text contains many possible readings.
I have never read anything by Sarah Waters, but have lately become tempted. Maybe Affinity should be the one to tart with?
That’s my favourite Waters, definitely – they are quite split into the rompish and the ghoulish books, so depends what you are in the mood for!
I don’t love all of Atwood’s books, but this is the only one I actively didn’t like. Because so many people love it (and even consider it a favorite), I keep thinking I need to revisit it, but your review reminded me how irritated I was at the men in the book (and the heavy-handedness in how they were written).
Cat’s Eye, however, is among my favorite Atwoods. (Along the The Robber Bride and The Blind Assassin.)
Yes – I think this is an easy Atwood read, but not one of the best – I’m totally with you on The Robber Bride and The Blind Assasin – they are incredible.
I read this a few years ago & really enjoyed it. I thought she was over-the-top on purpose, mostly because what’s considered blatant sexism now was probably thought of as the height of subtlety not too long ago. I don’t think it was meant to be an insult to the reader’s intelligence, but rather an illustration of the gross lack of sophisticated thought about gender roles and supposed differences in intelligence and sensibility in society at the time. But I can see how that could be a turn-off.
I do remember the end being less than satisfying, though. I haven’t made it through the Robber Bride yet; it didn’t grab me for some reason, but perhaps I need to pick it up again. And you remind me that I definitely need to pick up Sarah Waters soon.
I’m still slowly working my way through all of Atwood’s amazing works. They can’t all be perfect, but I still find all or her writing mesmerizing. She is a master wordsmith.