Rating: 
Summary: What is the definition of Guilt?
Review: You know from reading the back cover that the novel is about Grace Marks, a teenage servant girl accused and convicted of the murder of her employer and a fellow servant in Canada in the year 1843. James McDermott, her partner in crime was convicted and hanged. Grace can't remember what happened the day of the murders, so we are left to wonder for almost the entire book - did she do it, or does guilt rest entirely with James McDermott? When the story opens, Grace has already been in jail for about 10 years. There are many pages of setup containing straightforward storytelling interspersed with newspaper excerpts, poems, letters and testimony. We are introduced briefly to Grace's life in prison and become acquainted with her crime and her notoriety. It is common practice for prisoners to work as servants in the warden or prison Governor's home and part of Grace's daily routine is to do sewing and cleaning for his family. We also meet Dr. Jordon, a mental health expert attempting to break the lock on Grace's memory. After about 100 pages, Grace begins a linear narration of her life through sessions with Doctor Jordon. She tells about how she came to Canada with her large family on an ocean voyage from Ireland and continues with her employment as a servant. We hear a great deal about sweeping, scrubbing, sewing and laundry and it becomes clear that Grace takes pride in her work. These psychotherapy sessions alternate with the book's present (10 years after the murders) and we learn that a local Reverend and a group of Grace's supporters believe in her innocence and are fighting to have her freed. We also get bits about the Governor's wife and daughters, and the Doctor himself. The respectable women and the Doctor form a nice juxtaposition to Grace's story because they illustrate the expectations, restrictions and privileges of class and gender. This is not a murder mystery in the conventional sense. The reader may believe that Grace's innocence or guilt is the main point of the story as late in the book, we eagerly approach the hypnosis that occurs. Details about her participation in the murder are uncovered that are ambiguous, but also revealing. In the final chapters, time does move on and we learn about what happens to the Doctor, the Reverend, the Governor's daughter and of course, Grace, in a satisfying conclusion. Margaret Atwood's technique is remarkable. The story raises questions about the nature of guilt, innocence, forgiveness and how the actions of others and the prescriptions of society affect the range of choices available to a person. There are a few passages in the story that offer glimmers of Grace's psyche and there are several gems that make the story vibrate. This story is better enjoyed with discussion. Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Very, Very Good
Review: "Alias Grace" is Margaret Atwood's finest novel after "Cat's Eye." Stylistically, through its elegant parodies, it is a love letter to classic nineteenth-century fiction. If you enjoy Dickens, Scott, Thackeray, Melville, or Twain, for example, you'll love this novel. If you never heard of, much less read, any of those other authors, you may still love this novel. Yet philosophically, "Alias Grace" is thoroughly post-modern. Experience, Atwood tells us, is compartmentalized, like the mind, like quilts; truth is whatever enables us to live life. Household servant Grace Marks was captured, tried, convicted, and jailed for her part in the 1843 murder, in what is now Ontario, of her master, bachelor Thomas Kinnear. Kinnear had been romantically involved with his housekeeper, also murdered. That much is fact, and the historical event, with its issues of class, gender, and frontier justice, has preoccupied Atwood for decades. She wrote a teleplay about it, which she now disavows, in the 1970s. In this fictional treatment, Atwood posits a group of bourgeois reformers/mystics who seek Grace's release from prison, after many years, through the development of a more probing account of what actually happened on the day of the murders. They engage Dr. Simon Jordan, a Harvard-educated physician and early proponent of notions of the subconscious that Charcot and Freud would later develop. Obtaining her confidence, Jordan meets regularly with Grace, who chronologically tells her story. Ironically, as the tale progresses, Grace -- ostensibly the docile servant, the passive patient -- becomes increasingly percipient, controlling, and heroic, while Jordan -- ostensibly the pre-Freudian analyst -- becomes increasingly clueless, controlled by his subsconscious, and comic. At a key moment, a hypnotist (or perhaps a charlatan) intervenes, and the story takes a final, dramatic twist. "Alias Grace" is satisfying on every level. Its plot development, poetic descriptions and dream sequences, literary references, historical and intellectual backdrop, and notions about what we know and what we live for are all very, very good.
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Summary: Unique Perspective into a Killer's Mind
Review: This novel is a unique story based upon its content and writing style. The story is about Grace Marks, based on a true story from the 1860's Canada. Grace has been convicted of two counts of murder for the past 15 years when a doctor arrives to analize her. This is one of the first novels to be told from Grace's point of view. For the majority of the book, the reader stays in Grace's thoughts and mind as she talks about herself. Although a little disturbing at times, this keeps the reader intrigued and guessing if she really did it. The second unique point is the writing style. Atwood takes the Victorian culture and quite literally embodies it in Grace. On the outside, Grace appears to be the ideal model of a true victorian lady. Yet, thanks to inner monologues, the reader gets to know a very different Grace. The reader has the chance to actually explore Grace as she sees herself. A key element in the novel is a quilt that Grace longs to have. This continues through Atwood's writing because of the many fragments she pieces together into a wonderfully told story. All in all, a book worth spending your time reading.
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Summary: the retelling of the.....truth?
Review: Who was Grace Marks? A murderess who could easily hide her violent personality, an unwilling victim, or a split personality? Nobody will ever know. A true story, a woman who lived in Canada in the 1840s. We meet her in the novel, mostly through the interviews she had, while in prison, with Dr. Simon Jordan a kind of psychiatrist of the times.
From what she said and from the way she presented herself and the facts of her life, she was either an angel or the most cunning of liars.
A horrible crime was committed in the households where Grace, a young girl of 15 or so, worked as a servant.
The master of the house Mr. Kinnear and his servant-lover Nancy were slaughtered in a most brutal way by a male servant James McDermott. Was Grace Marks his accomplice? this is the enigma which remains unsolved.
Beautiful style, Margaret Atwood confirms once again her ability to confound and enchant the reader with intriguing stories. She is, in my opinion, one of the best post-modern Canadian writers.
Rating:
Summary: A intelligent, compelling and easy to understand book
Review: At first glance you might feel compelled to read it because it's quite a thick book. But once you lay your eyes on the words magaret atwood has written, you are more compelled not to read it. There's an element of reality and truth to the story but at the same time it's fiction. You have a character Grace Marks who, at age of 15, is convicted of killing her master and head mistress with an accomplice but she is pardoned from being hanged. A young psychologist comes into town interested in marks' case and he tries to figure if grace's stand on her innocense is true or a basis of lies. You are along for the so called ride, trying to figure out if this girl has actually done it or not. The interesting thing is that you don't really know who is to be trusted. In many novels, you being to trust or believe the protaganist is telling the truth or innocent. But in this case, atwood makes you think and bring into reason instead of giving you the reason to believe grace. It's a very intelligent book but anyone can read it. You will not feel as if you're reading a two inch book but rather wondering how did you finished the book and not feel as if it has been an eternity. I surely recommend it. The characters feel real and there's always emotional highs and lows throughout the novel. Enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Frustrating
Review: Whereas Oryx and Crake fasinated me, Alias Grace frustrated me. There are too many points of view and too many different writing styles for the book to flow from start to finish. Grace as a character bored me. Simon the doctor was the only one who really got my attention but his scenes were few and far between.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow going but rewarding at times
Review: It's the middle of the 19th century in post-rebellion Upper Canada, and Grace, the heroine of the story, gets implicated in the murder of a landowner and his mistress. Grace is a hard character to know; is she a simpleton or cunning? Is she hiding a huge secret or is she resigned to being wrongfully convicted? There are other interesting characters, especially the doctor who interviews Grace at length, while at the same time confronting his own demons. There is so much bleakness shown in the small towns in Upper Canada in this time, the struggles of the poor, especially the fate of Grace's friend who becomes pregnant. That bleakness is to be expected from an Atwood novel of course. Overall, it was a slowly paced novel which suffered in comparison to Atwood's The Blind Assassin in my opinion. Still, it is a worthwhile read and well written.
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Summary: Atwood Shines, As Usual
Review: Margaret Atwood is never less than a fascinating author, and "Alias Grace" is rarely less than a fascinating novel. Taking as its source material the story of Grace Marks, notoriously (and inconclusively) involved in the murders of her employer and fellow servant in the 1850's, the novel details the attempts of a psychologist to plumb the depths of Grace's psyche and help her past the memory block that is preventing her from remembering her part in the crime. The suspense of the novel lies in the doctor's (and reader's) uncertainty as to Grace's innocence. Has she really forgotten what happened? Was she a naive dupe? Or was she in fact the one doing the duping? In typical Atwood fashion, the conclusion remains somewhat ambiguous but immensely satisfying nonetheless. This ambiguity is a perfect match for Atwood's story, and indeed for Atwood's approach to story telling in general. Her female protagonists are always ambiguous creatures; they think and feel in shades of grey. Yet they're always surrounded by people (both men and women) who want to tidily slot them away in easily-definable categories. Grace is just such a character. It would be easiest for everyone involved if she could be labeled as a demon, a half-wit---anything that would make her actions understandable to those around her. But of course, the person that is Grace Marks is much too complicated for such classification. "Alias Grace" is one of the darker novels Atwood has written, and she's a rather dark author to begin with. The period feels researched well, and the details describing the lives of domestic servants is quite interesting. I felt she was on somewhat shaky ground once she gets into the realm of hypnosis and spiritualism. Something about the hypnosis scene rang false for me. Indeed, I was left a bit confused by the outcome of the it (I won't say any more), and I'm not sure if Atwood intended for me to be confused or not. And in a related comment, I wish she had done a bit more with the relationship between Grace and Jeremiah over all. "Alias Grace" wasn't quite as satisfying for me as "The Handmaid's Tale" (I doubt any Atwood book will be) or "Cat's Eye," and I think I even liked "The Robber Bride" more. But even lesser Atwood is always more welcome than the best some other author has to offer.
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Summary: A true story comes to life with each turn of the page
Review: I am going to get my summary of the book over with right now: It was absolutely incredible! It was a fantastic recreation of a true story that gripped the reader to the very end.
The story takes place in 1863 in Canada. Enter lovely Grace, a 16 year old girl left with no other option but to leave her abusive father to her beloved small siblings and enter the only lucrative employment open to her- servitude. Grace adapts well to her position of servant, but unfortunately she accepts a position with a rich master, Mr. Thomas Kinnear after being sweet talked by the main "housekeeper", Nancy Montgomery. Certain that her employment will be worth her leaving her initial assignment, Grace elects to leave behind her only experience of stability to work for Mr. Kinnear. But, shortly after starting this position, Grace is accused of a double murder, along with a fellow house servant, James McDermott. The murders are revealed through the newspaper releases, personal interviews with the main characters and the transcript interpretations of court proceedings. This leads the reader to one of the more intriguing stories in a long time, and one that just leaves a reader itiching for every possible piece of information that could shed light for the truth and accurately recreate the circumstances for what happened that night so long ago. That night involves the owner of the mansion and grounds, Mr. Thomas Kinnear and his "housekeeper" Nancy Montgomery. It seems fairly certain that their relationship was more than professional, indeed, Nancy appears to habitually be romantic with her masters... and to become impregnated by them as well. All of these incredibly scandalous behaviors catch up with these characters. There is a supposition of innocence about Grace that confronts the readers and the postmortem evidence that disturbs one as well. Regardless, this is a very intriguing novel that is intellectually stimulating and certain to provoke powerful emotions.
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Summary: only having read one of atwood's books . . .
Review: just finished a margaret atwood book--my first. i'm not overly impressed: she takes forever to make her point. and the writing on the way to it is not enlightening enough to justify the volume of it. she carries the reader in three directions at once in the case of _alias grace_, and i think it's a deliberate part of the style, as the heroine is three-persons-in-one (along the lines of the madonna/whore position of women, in men's minds). the question of how a woman is to overcome that quandary is not resolved. i think that atwood's reputation of misogyny is not accurate--but her flat tone while conveying women's lack of agency and self-determination is not inspiring. her work is not hopeful, then. she also shames the reader with his or her pruriency--promising a story about a murderess involved in an extramarital sexual scandal, but scolding those characters within the novel who indulge their prurient and voyeuristic tendencies therein. nobody comes out well, and all manner of human failings are to blame: lonely wives, doting mothers of adult sons, priests, lawyers, men who dishonor willing women, young girls who seek men's attentions, and women who covet jewelry and clothing. (does anyone, then, come away from atwood's critical gaze unscathed?) i don't know if i'll give one of her other books a try or not. i think i should, in order to come to a more solid conclusion about her writing. the subject matter of _alias grace_ may have necessitated its bleakness--although, from what i have read about _the handmaiden's tale_, it may just be a general tendency on atwood's part.
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