Alias Grace Summary, Analysis, and Review
Alias Grace Summary
Alias Grace is a novel by Margaret Atwood based on the real-life 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery. Grace Marks and James McDermott were convicted of the crime. McDermott was hanged, and Marks had her sentence commuted and ended up in the Kingston Penitentiary. No one knows for sure whether or to what degree Grace Marks was involved in the murders. Alias Grace gives readers a chance to decide for themselves whether this “celebrated murderess” was guilty or not.
In Alias Grace, a Methodist group in Kingston, Canada solicits the help of an American, Dr. Simon Jordan. They are petitioning for a pardon for Grace and hope that Simon can write a science-backed letter supporting their cause. Simon acts as what we would now call a psychiatrist. Alias Grace takes place in 1851, 18 years before psychology was first recognized as a discipline. Consequently, Simon’s beliefs about mental health are cutting edge for the time. Simon is interested in Grace because he wants to start a private asylum and hopes that working with Grace will help him make a name for himself as an expert in mental illness. Simon listens as Grace tells him her life’s story including her version of the murders while she quilts. When Grace is not telling her story, Simon gets himself mixed up in a comical though pathetic affair.
Alias Grace Analysis (It’ll be quick, I Swear!)
At the very beginning of Alias Grace, before you read any prose, you see a quilt. Each section is named after a quilt pattern and includes a corresponding illustration. The first 34 pages are also a patchwork of their own—an assortment of quotes, poems, and historical documents that set the stage for what Grace will later reveal. This pattern is repeated throughout the book with each new section.
As you can see, quilts are a running theme in Alias Grace. I’m not going to get too much into the analysis of it. (Was anyone else traumatized by Hemmingway’s Iceberg Theory in high school?) But it’s worth noting that there is more to the quilts in Alias Grace than what’s on the surface.
In her book review, “Quilt and Guilt,” published in The World & I in February 1997, Roberta Rubenstein, a professor of literature at American University, explains,
“Quilt is a particularly apt metaphor for the multiplicity of narrative perspectives. As Grace points out, perception of a quilt design depends entirely upon ‘looking at the dark pieces, or else the light.’ Moving figuratively between quilt and guilt, the narrative invites the reader to determine, on the basis of contradictory information, whether Grace is innocent or guilty, sane or insane, contrary or possessed, an unfortunate victim of circumstance or a manipulative actress. Through challenging us to determine Grace's guilt or innocence, the dark or light, Atwood dares us to question the nature of truth itself: What constitutes "proof" and how is it verified, given the intrinsic limitations of all facts and the biases of all perspectives, to say nothing of distortions introduced by the vagaries of memory?”
Atwood definitely challenges us to determine Grace’s guilt or innocence. At first, I thought Grace was a victim of circumstance. When I read her description of the murders to Simon, however, something didn’t add up, and I couldn’t completely exonerate her. But by the end of the book, I didn’t know what to think. Part of that is because Grace Marks’ true story was so elusive, but it’s also because I was putty in Atwood’s skilled hands.
Alias Grace Review
Alias Grace is told from the perspectives of both Grace and Simon. Grace’s narration is not flanked by quotation marks. Atwood doesn’t even use them for the conversations Grace describes during her story. Instead, Atwood saves them for shorter bouts of speech in the chapters where Simon takes the lead. Interestingly, the chapters about Simon are written in third person while the chapters featuring Grace are written in first person. The lack of quotation marks combined with the alternating point of view is confusing at first, but you get used to it.
Overall, I found Grace Marks’ story fascinating, and I was amused by the Victorian antics. But Alias Grace lacks action, which kind of goes with the territory of literary fiction. Many of the sentences are very long, entire paragraphs at times, which also makes Alias Grace tough to get through. I’m hesitant to describe Alias Grace as “wordy” because I’m a Margaret Atwood fangirl. But it is. It’s so wordy, certainly a different writing style from Atwood’s other work. Here’s an example:
“It was against the gentry, who ran everything, and kept all the money and land for themselves; and it was led by Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie, who was a Radical, and after the Rebellion failed he escaped through ice and snow in women’s clothing, and over the Lake to the Sates, and he could have been betrayed many times over but was not, because he was a fine man who always stood up for the ordinary farmers; but many of the Radicals had been caught and transported or hanged, and had lost their property; or else had gone south; and most of those left here were Tories, or said they were; so it was best not to mention politics, except among friends.”
Yes, that quote is only one sentence. That’s some confident punctuating on Atwood’s part!
Although Alias Grace takes a while to get going and parts of it were a real slog, I’m glad I stuck with it. I learned a lot and I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night without knowing how Atwood was going to end the book. As interesting as Grace’s story is, however, I wouldn’t recommend Alias Grace as your first Atwood because it is a little difficult to get through. But, if you’re already an Atwood fan, definitely pick up this book. Alias Grace will also appeal to the bonafide history buffs and “serious readers” out there because it has a lot to unpack with regard to both history and Atwood’s literary prowess. Finally, if you’ve read Alias Grace or watched the Netflix Original, what do you think, guilty or innocent?
Alias Grace
by Margaret Atwood
