Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
A heartbreaking
story based on real events surrounding a murder case in the 1800s
with the accused being Grace Marks. The story as told by Margaret
Atwood is however a work of fiction retold using the same places and
dates as the actual story. As I read the book, I thought of a
Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
The story begins
with Grace Marks as a child in Ireland. Her father an abusive
alcoholic and her mother bearing children after children, the family
is supported to some extent by Grace’s aunt and uncle. Finally fed
up of supporting this ever-growing family, the uncle suggests a
migration to Canada and to their luck, Grace’s father has been
getting into some trouble with the law due to which he takes up the
proposition. Unfortunately, Grace’s mother dies on the journey and
is buried at sea. Grace later regrets using her mother’s second
best blanket to wrap her dead body.
Coming to Canada,
life gets a bit better as she finds herself a maid in a household.
Her first true friend Mary Whitney turns her life around and she
finds herself happy for the first time ever. But a cruel turn of fate
leaves Mary Whitney pregnant out of wedlock by someone who she
thought would marry her but in end doesn’t. In the 1800s, being a
mother out of wedlock would mean being turned out into the streets
and taking up a profession like prostitution which would eventually
kill her. Something in the book seems to hint the father of the child
might be a member of the household they work for. Mary eventually
tried to get a abortion but in those days abortion clinics were
little more than slaughterhouses. The abortion is a disaster and Mary
dies that night. Mary’s death leaves a hole in Grace’s life as
Mary was her mentor and protector.
Grace moves from job
to job until she finally ends up working for Mr. Kinnear. Mr. Kinnear
is fairly wealthy and has a house in-charge called Nancy who even
though being a servant was his lover. Grace knows nothing of this
when she takes the job but as she moves in, her relationship with
Nancy becomes rocky pivoting between extreme friendliness and extreme
hostility. There is James McDormett who is the stable hand and Jamie
Walsh who is not exactly the servant but tends to hang around. James
McDormett is the first to antagonize Nancy who fires him. James
decides to kill her and Mr. Kinnear as an act of revenge. Nancy in
her mood swings also terminates Grace. James tries to bring Grace
into his plot but according to her narrative, she refuses. The double
murder takes place, James and Grace try to flee, are caught and
brought back to face trial. Both of them are given the death penalty
as both of them through their lawyers try to pin the blame on the
other. James claims Grace manipulated him into killing them as she
was jealous of Nancy while Grace claimed she had nothing to do with
it. Eventually, James is hanged while Grace escapes at the last
minute.
Grace Marks then
narrates her whole life story to Simon Jordan who is an American
psychiatrist performing research into insanity. Simon seems to find
her story convincing and feels she may be innocent as many of the
characters in her story do exist – Mary Whitney for instance is
real and not a fictional character. However, he can find no signs of
apparent insanity that could help a group of people who wish to enter
a plea of insanity on behalf of Grace to obtain a pardon.
Initially, Simon
appears as the face of sanity among all these as he uses his
knowledge of medicine and science to unravel this murder mystery. It appears as if there was never
any doubt about Grace being either an active participant in the
murders or merely the seductress who led James on to commit the
murders. What Simon is set out to determine is if there was an
alter-ego commanding Grace to commit the murders. He seems to think
Mary Whitney’s death may have played a role in her wanting to
commit murder as a means of self-preservation. Some accounts of
Grace’s story mentions voices, but he still can’t make out if
that was a natural reaction to the stressful events or in reality a
case of insanity.
Simon too is quick
to get involved in a messy affair with his landlady while being
expected to court the daughter of the prison’s Governor.
Eventually, the affair goes out of hand and Simon has to flee to the
United States to avoid a scandal. Atwood’s presentation of this is
quite strange. Almost as if Simon was led on and expected to have an
affair with the landlady while only offering to help. And that his
letting the affair take it’s course was merely the man being
tempted by a seductress. And his flirtation with the Governor’s
daughter was just what was expected of him and was his right. In a
way, Atwood might have been describing the latitude offered to men in
contrast to women back in those times.
Simon eventually
gets involved in the American civil war as a military surgeon and his
injury then leaves him without a part of his memory. Either it is a
convenient memory loss or a poetic way to serve justice to someone
who acted without impunity is hard to tell.
I was expecting the
book to end like a Thousand Splendid Suns with Grace Marks dying in
prison. But she receives a pardon, finds herself a home in the United
States and gets married to the now grown Jamie Walsh from the old
murder days. Towards the end, Grace does receive some kindness from
those around her, the Governor of the prison and his daughter who
prepare her for her new life. After 30 years in prison, Grace
eventually leads a life she thought she never will just as her friend
Mary Whitney never could.
A very well written
novel and actually better than the Handmaid’s Tale. I suppose any
story based on a dystopian future like 1984 gains a specific
popularity. However, this book portrays Canada quite well. The book
is set in Toronto and Kingston and I found the description of these
places from 150 years back thoroughly enjoyable. Grace Marks makes
the journey from Toronto to Richmond Hill along Yonge Street by
carriage. Yonge Street is one of the longest roads in the world and
it eventually lost first place to another road because a part of it
becomes Highway 11 and if you travel along Yonge Street, it turns out
to be quite an amazing journey. Some of Simon’s movements around
Kingston are quite well described including his walks along the
lakeshore.
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