Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Novel Based On A True Crime
Review: Set in the mid 1800's, mostly in Canada, this well written novel is based on an actual person, Grace Marks, and an actual crime.
I found the details of Grace Marks' life as a serving maid, quite fascinating.
She is young when the crime occurs, being only fifteen or sixteen years old.
Background is given on her, and we see that Grace has a difficult childhood. Her parents have too many children. The father is a selfish, worthless, alcholic, and the mother usually pregnant and overworked. There is a great deal in this environment that causes emotional and mental trauma for Grace Marks.
She eventually escapes the horrors of her family life, working as a maid for a wealthy family. She develops a close friendship with another maid, Mary Whitney. When tragedy befalls Mary Whitney, it furthur traumizes Grace.
When she goes to work for a Mr. Kinnear, trouble is already afoot in the household. Add to this, the fact Grace is far too pretty for her own good.Much of the plot turns on the class systems of the mid 1800's, as well as an extreme double standard in regards to women. The answer to Grace' innocence or guilt is revealed in an interesting pyschological twist I greatly enjoyed this book, and found it thoroughly fascinating reading.
Rating:
Summary: Great Journey of an enigmatic woman
Review: Chosen as book of the month for Book club. My big mistake was to get home late from our meeting, get into bed and open this book!!!! Three days later (who knows who fed the children and drove them to school) I emerged from the book. Margret Atwood has captured the time and social structure of the period. Imagery was called to the fore with her descriptions of seaboard life, life in service and especially the quilts used as metaphors. Grace was surely the sanest character in the book, doctors, charlatens, women with drug habits, lawyers with overinflated ego's, the irony of the priviliged classes judging of sanity. However the ending to the book was slightly disappointing, I really did not need to know what happened after she left the confines of prison, Grace was free and perhaps that was all the reader needed to know.
Rating:
Summary: Alias Grace Marks - a tale of murder and redemption.
Review: A 19th century woman, who was an Irish immigrant, banished from her family to earn money at the age of 12 becomes the reader's guide through a story brimming with psychological analysis (in its infancy) and subtle sexual yearnings that emerge at the most unexpected places in the story. Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace is the remarkable story of Grace Marks who is accused of brutally murdering two people. The retelling of the events that led up to the murder provides the reader with rare, but well researched, details of 19th century life for a young immigrant woman trying to survive before and after the crimes have been committed. Ms. Atwood presents each character with such fine details that we can almost smell the musty bodies and clothes, the stench coming from the city streets and know the characters' most intimate thoughts. This book takes the reader back through time and brings 19th century life to the modern reader. Ms. Atwood has done a thorough job in her research of not only the real Grace Marks but also of what it must have been like for a young psychiatrist (Dr. Jordan) to clear the dark, twisted path of a person's memory. Dr. Simon Jordan wants to discover the truth about Grace and at the same time make a name for himself; he wants to reconstruct the events and to find the truth behind the sensationalist circumstances of the murders. There are no eyewitnesses to these murders and the memory of Grace Marks becomes the only clue to discovering what actually happened. Furthermore, Dr. Jordan doesn't foresee or understand the profound effects of Grace's story on his own vulnerable ego. Alias Grace is that rare combination of great story telling, richly detailed characters, and plot that has been culled from historical research of an actual event. Just to know that Grace Marks really existed over one hundred years ago adds to the suspense of trying to find the truth or to reach a conclusion regarding the guilt or innocence of Grace Marks. Ms. Atwood has that rare gift as an author who finds the characters' voice and then lets them reveal themselves in the most unexpected ways.
Rating: 
Summary: I WAS NOT EXTREMELY EXCITED BY THIS BOOK, BUT WAS PLEASED.
Review: I WAS NOT EXEREMELY EXCITED BY THIS BOOK, BUT WAS PLEASED WITH THE OUT COME. I THOUGHT THE MANNER OF THR WRITING A BIT HARD TO READ,GOING FROM LETTERS TO HER SPEAKING TO THE DOCTOR SPEAKING ETC. THE STORY LINE WAS GOOD AND IT REALLY GAVE AN INSIGHT TO THAT DAY AND TIME.I WOULD SUGGEST THIS BOOK TO OTHERS.
Rating:
Summary: A Tale that lingers
Review: When i first started reading this novel, I felt disappointed; "this isn't Atwood" A year later i began again, and found it startling and brilliant! Initially, I thought Grace had a split personality, the coarsness of her second voice was lurid, then i met Mary and felt mistaken, and on to Dr Jordan and his analysis which was confounded by Dr Dupont (Jeremiah)and here we are back to Mary!So this work continued circular,in the manner of a bicycle wheel, each part constructed to bring the reader back to the central theme; Are there answers to eternal questions? You decide!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read with a disappointing ending
Review: Our book club read this and it stimulated an excellent discussion. The book reads easily and keeps you gripped. The last 100-150 pages are disappointing with a rather contrived ending. Why did Jerimiah's prison visit come to nothing? Is it supposed to keep the unsolved murder mystery going? Most of our 10 book club members felt a sense of frustration as they completed the final chapters. We also felt the need to re-read them in case we'd missed something!!
Rating: 
Summary: Quite Intriguing
Review: I am a college student, and I was brought to this book by my Poetry professor who raved about it. I was certainly not disappointed. This book was very interesting to read, and it kept me on my toes. I think one of the best things about it, is that no one really knows what happened. The senario really realled me in in the first place, but the text and dialouges that are both historically accurate and created using the available sources kept me coming back to reading the novel. I would reccommend this book to all.
Rating:
Summary: Harshly Revealing and Tenderly Written: A Masterpiece
Review: Alias Grace is a beautiful story; its graceful prose wraps around the reader and pulls you in to a narrative that always hovers around the border of sanity and reality. The heroine, Grace Marks, is less her own character than a mirror that reflects the hidden thoughts and fantasies of those around her. Readers and characters alike can be judged by how they perceived her: cold-blooded murderess? vile seductress? innocent child? fresh, delicate young woman? The double role in both her gender and her class place Grace in a position vulnerable to the imaginations and judgements of the rest of her highly-stratified Victorian society. Atwood has created a book that exposes the hypocrisies and the archetypal fantasies of Grace's time and ours. A masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood is an enticing story
Review: I'm always eager to read anything by Margaret Atwood because of her sincere understanding of not only the female spirit but of the soul of humanity. In Alias Grace Atwood gives us the voice of Grace Marks as she moves through her Victorian life. Grace is convicted of participating in a news-making double murder. Atwood's story is based on an actual crime and she complements the tale with real - and sometimes raw - human emotions. A doctor searching for his own identity looks into Grace's psyche with experimental psychology for the mirror that will reflect his purpose. Grace herself remains ethereal and spirit-like throughout her narrative. Was she a murderer? Is her confusion and innocence a ruse to disarm those around her? Because these questions aren't clearly answered the readers of Alias Grace are captivated by every word, every incident, every symbol. You'll want to start reading this book again after you've finished the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, as always, from Ms. Atwood
Review: I read the first paragraph of this book over and over. Once again, Atwood amazes me with the beauty of language. Truly a master of words, she has them at her command. And, as always, Atwood tells a story that I might otherwise have no interest in, yet somehow, she manages to bring me into another time and place. I was completely captivated from page one to the end!
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