I know this is already on the list of recommended books, but I just had to post this since there wasn't any description/comment with the recommendation.Alias Grace
Posted by Carolyn B on December 16, 1997 at 23:35:25:
I know this is already on the list of recommended books, but I just had to post this since there wasn't any description/comment with the recommendation.
I just finished reading Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace which is wonderful! I couldn't read it at night lest I stay up till the wee hours to finish it, so I had to read it on my lunch break and was always tempted to hide in the back of my office to read just a little bit more.
The story is based on a real murder case in 1840s Canada. Two servants were accused of murdering their employer and his housekeeper/mistress. Grace was the sixteen-year-old servant girl, who according to various accounts was the instigator or innocent victim of the murders. Atwood tells the story from the POV of Grace, serving a life sentence and an American doctor studying her but also inserts excerpts from the actual historical accounts of the case.
Lots of detail on servants' lives and Atwood really weaves together well the fictional and historical aspects of the story. (This is a novel, not a history.)
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