Alias Grace

Written by Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace is a fantastic and genuinely gripping piece of historical fiction based on the actual story of Grace Marks, one of Canada’s most notorious female criminals. Written as a personal memoir or biography of the infamous murderess, this book enthrals the reader right from the off, drawing them into a harsh world filled with sexual, religious, and societal prejudices and dichotomies. 

At the age of sixteen, servant girl Grace Marks was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of her employer, James Kinnear. After years of being behind bars, Grace gets the chance to tell her story from her humble and struggling childhood in Ireland to the crime that put her behind bars. She tells her story to a Dr. Simon Jordan who is engaged by a group of spiritualists and reformers who are seeking a pardon for Grace. As Grace draws ever closer to the crime that locked her away, a titillating tale of sex and mystery begins to unfold and Dr. Jordon draws ever closer to uncovering what really happened during that fateful day that Grace cannot remember. 

Not only has Atwood succeeded in creating an entire world and enticing mystery around a true historical event, but she has done so with the utmost dexterity and seamless fusion of the two worlds: fact and fiction. The book is divided into separate parts with each new part being begun with excerpts from authentic material from the time of the event. We read snippets from books and news articles, as well as entries from the warden’s journal, and poems constructed around the same time. We also get to read some excerpts from the confessions of both Grace Marks and James McDermott. This clever little technique not only shows Atwood’s skills as a researcher and information gatherer, but it also subtly treads that fine line between fact and fiction, which in turn creates a whole new way of reading the book. We know it’s a work of fiction, but there are many things contained within it that are fact and the story just flows seamlessly between the two planes. 

Not so much a thrilling murder or great mystery caper story, the appeal of Alias Grace lies in the characters and the contradicting themes that are littered throughout. It really is a book of dichotomies: we are faced with the battle of the sexes, feminism vs. masculinity, class conflicts, and religious beliefs and piety pitted against science and hard ground evidence. The book is positively littered with these ongoing battles, which are as old as the hills, and although the writing is tricky to latch onto as it jumps between first person and third person registers, it really makes the entire story more tangible and exciting. 

Filled with sex, murder, mystery, spiritualism, death, and misery, Alias Grace is a fantastic book, which had me hooked from the first page. I absolutely adored it!