What to Read -- Archives : May, 2011
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Will the Real Grace Marks Please Stand Up? submitted by Wallis Leslie
More >>Margaret Atwood bases her novel Alias Grace on the historical records of Grace Marks, an immigrant to Canada from Ireland in the early 1800's. These records are equivocal and enigmatic, reflecting public sensationalizing of a case where two servants were convicted of murdering a gentleman and his mistress/housekeeper. Atwood puts readers into the social world of servants and gentlefolk, doctors, prison guards, farmers, drunkards, and horny landladies. Much is revealed of class and gender conditions and restrictions in Canadian society of the time with an occasional nod to the democratic shenanigans taking place in the recently independent United States of America.
What is most fascinating is the experience of the thirty years perspective given by Grace Marks, the fifteen year old girl convicted of murder, whose unique voice attracts and charms the reader but remains elusive. It suggests how willing we are to hear what we want to hear and to say wha...
Posted by Ms. Wallis Leslie on May 4 2011 9:02AM | 0 comments
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