Grace Marks is a slave in the 1800s. It's not an easy life, but it's the only way she can survive. Honest work is all she's learned to do, and as much as she envies the ladies she waits on, she would never do anything to hurt them... or would she? Grace is convicted as a murderess in the killing of her employer and his mistress; only problem is, she can't remember a thing from the time. Is she truly a killer, or was her supposed partner-in-crime lying? Grace was supposed to be put to death, but was instead shifted to an insane asylum before finally spending her days in jail. Now, Dr. Simon Jordan will attempt to unravel the working of Grace's mind. Will he be able to discover what's hidden in her memories? Or will the truth forever stay uncovered?
This is not the type of book I would usually read, since I don't like books based in the past or with third-person sections. However, I do like murder mysteries and amnesia, so I decided to give it a go. The first thing I found that bothered me about Margaret Atwood's writing is that, when talking as Grace, no quotation marks were used. Conversation occurred, but it was sometimes difficult to tell whether the sentence was a statement of action, a memory, or a comment voiced aloud. I didn't like this because it made me over-analyze the words and wonder whether something meant what I thought, or if it was something else entirely. This also happened the first time Grace addressed Dr. Simon Jordan in a chapter without telling the reader that was who she was talking to. Only after she began to say 'Sir' in her sentences did I realize that this wasn't a narrative meant for the audience, but her story being told to the doctor.
This book started off very slowly, and I didn't find it compelling for quite a while. The stories Grace told were interesting, but they didn't entrance or captivate me. I was about three-quarters of the way through before I started to want to read it and see how the book turned out. That's a major issue of mine: if I start a book, I must end it. I can't just put it down, no matter how much I may dislike it at the time. I also found that this book didn't interest me much when I first started it because of the amount of characters. When there are many characters, I find it difficult to remember who's who, which makes it hard for me to follow along with the storyline, since I can't recall what a person's motives are for their actions. Only once I really got into the story and was able to keep track of all the characters in my mind did I finally begin to enjoy it.
I found the ending of this book to be quite unexpected. Throughout the majority of the book, the supernatural are not mentioned, except in religious context. Then something completely out of the ordinary relating to unnatural beings happens. The interesting part is that no one can really be sure whether the experience was real; not the characters, and certainly not the reader. This leaves the perfect uncertainty in the reader's mind after they've finished the novel that continues to make them think of it over and over again. Although unexpected, I wouldn't say this event came entirely out of the blue. This makes me happy, because when the author brings in something that doesn't seem compatible with the rest of the book, I enjoy it less.
Overall, I'm glad that I read this book. Although I didn't enjoy the first bit of it, when I got to the good parts, I was quite happy that I'd pushed myself to finish it. It is an interesting book, and quite different from the types I usually read. I would give this story a rating of three stars, as the writing was quite good throughout the entire novel, and the end somewhat made up for the tedious beginning. I would suggest this novel to anyone looking for murder, mystery, and life based in the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment