Moving away from the winners for a bit, I took on Atwood's Alias Grace. I have had my eyes on this book for a while, basically waiting to read it as a reward for when I finished the Best of the Booker shortlist. This might have ruined if for me.
It's not that the story wasn't interesting. It's not that the issues it took on weren't important or compelling. I think I'm just getting tired of Atwood's style. Her quick punches in her wry codas really started to get to me in this one.
At the start Grace Marks has already been in jail for fifteen years for the murder of Thomas Kinnear, her employer, and Nancy Montgomery, his housekeeper. Interestingly, Grace can't remember what happened. Doctor Simon Jordon, who doesn't necessarily care about exonerating Grace as much as making his name in science, comes to try to help her remember. Grace tells her story from the beginning, and Atwood escorts us smoothly to a finale.
If you're interested in more of my feelings on this book, please check out my new blog: http://mookse.wordpress.com. My blog is set up so people looking for general feelings about a book before they read it can get a general review. But I also leave space at the end to discuss issues that might spoil the book for those who haven't read it. I'm hoping to get into some conversations about some of these books on that level. I'd love for my Complete Booker friends to visit to discuss some of these issues.
3 stars out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment