Book 41, Alias Grace (1996) – Margaret Atwood
“In 1843, a 16-year-old Canadian housemaid named Grace Marks was tried for the murder of her employer and his mistress. The sensationalistic trial made headlines throughout the world, and the jury delivered a guilty verdict. Yet opinion remained fiercely divided about Marks–was she a spurned woman who had taken out her rage on two innocent victims, or was she an unwilling victim herself, caught up in a crime she was too young to understand? Such doubts persuaded the judges to commute her sentence to life imprisonment, and Marks spent the next 30 years in an assortment of jails and asylums, where she was often exhibited as a star attraction. In Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood reconstructs Marks’s story in fictional form. Her portraits of 19th-century prison and asylum life are chilling in their detail. The author also introduces Dr. Simon Jordan, who listens to the prisoner’s tale with a mixture of sympathy and disbelief. In his effort to uncover the truth, Jordan uses the tools of the then rudimentary science of psychology. But the last word belongs to the book’s narrator–Grace herself.”

Other useful links:
the Wikipedia entry for Alias Grace

My thoughts:
This was a very good book, possibly my favourite of Atwood’s so far. So many layers of meaning and a wonderfully unreliable narrator. She had me guessing the entire time: manipulative? a psychopath who merely reflects back what her interlocutors expect? a victim of early abuse and tragedy who’s put out of her mind when faced with trauma and never really regains herself? or a placid philosopher who takes things as they come and reports things as they happened? And what of Dr. Jordan? and Jeremiah? and Jamie Walsh? People appear and disappear and are never surely who they seem to be. Loved it!

Book 34, Life in the Clearings Versus the Bush (1853) – Susanna Moodie
From the back cover:
“In Life in the Clearings versus the Bush (1853), the sequel to Roughing It in the Bush (1852), Susanna Moodie turns from examination of pioneer life in the bush to a portrayal of the relatively sophisticated society springing up in the clearings along Lake Ontario. During a trip from Belleville to Niagara Falls, Moodie acts as a meticulous observer of the social customs and practices of the times.

Invaluable as social history and as a candid self-portrait of a remarkable woman, Life in the Clearings versus the Bush chronicles, with wit and wisdom, Canadian society in the mid-nineteenth century.”

Other useful links:
the Wikipedia entry for Susanna Moodie

My thoughts:
First off, I have to say that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as Roughing It in the Bush. She spent far less time observing people, places, and customs and a lot more time talking about (the Christian) God. When she did describe life in Canada it was interesting as usual and some parts were fascinating (her observations of the “Lunatic Asylum” for example). There are a couple of essays that were interesting too, especially looking back on things from a century and a half later, like the one about wearing mourning. I don’t know if she would be happy or horrified to see how far those customs have been abandoned. I was particularly intrigued by the story of Grace Marks because I know that Margaret Atwood based her book Alias Grace upon this account. I have yet to read Margaret Atwood’s book, but I will do so soon while the memories are still fresh.

Book 32, Anne of Green Gables (1908) – Lucy Maud Montgomery
From a publisher:
“When siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert decide to send word to an orphanage for a little boy to help on their land, both their lives are forever changed by an unexpected mistake—an 11-year-old girl named Anne Shirley. A young, imaginative, spunky, red-haired orphan arrives, longing for a real family, friends, and a place to call home. Through a series of lessons and adventures she soon captures the hearts of the Cuthberts and all those around her in the small town of Avonlea.”

Other useful links:
the Wikipedia entry for Lucy Maud Montgomery
the Wikipedia entry for Anne of Green Gables

My thoughts:
I’m rereading this again since it is the 100th anniversary of the book and it’s probably been about 12 years since I read it last. I’m looking at it with quite a different perspective.
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I read this in a couple of days in late August while lounging at the pool. I did definitely have a different perspective this time ’round. I read Margaret Atwood’s analysis of the book in which she says that the true heroine of the book is Marilla, and this time I paid particular attention to Marilla’s development. I also tried to read it with a view to the Canadian literature which preceded it and was able to compare it to Little Women (very favourably—I didn’t care for the moralising of the latter book. Of course all of that extra background knowledge and focus did not detract a whit from the exuberance, joy, and pathos of Anne’s story.

If you’ve not read this book before, I urge you to pick it up. It’s such a delight.

Book 21, The Blind Assassin (2000) – Margaret Atwood
From the back cover:
“‘Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.’ These words are spoken by Iris Chase Griffen, married at eighteen to a wealthy industrialist but now poor and eighty-two. Iris recalls her far from exemplary life, and the events leading up to her sister’s death, gradually revealing the carefully guarded Chase secrets. Among these is ‘The Blind Assassin,’ a novel that earned the dead Laura Chase not only notoriety but also a devoted cult following. Sexually explicit for its time, it was a pulp fantasy improvised by two unnamed lovers who meet secretly in rented rooms and seedy cafés. As sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real narrative, as both move closer to war and catastrophe. Margaret Atwood’s Booker Prize-winning sensation combines elements of gothic drama, romantic suspense, and science fiction fantasy in a spellbinding tale.”

Other useful links:
the Wikipedia article on Margaret Atwood
the Wikipedia article on The Blind Assassin
the Wikipedia article on the Southern Ontario Gothic literary genre

My thoughts:

Well, I wasn’t disappointed. I love books like this, with several stories going on at once and jumps back and forth in time. I figured out most of the “surprise twists” but it didn’t detract at all from the novel. I really got to know and to like Iris (and to detest her sister-in-law!! not to mention her husband…). I enjoyed the pulp erotic sci-fi parts and the biographical-family history parts in which Iris chronicles the rise and decline of the Button Factory and Port Ticonderoga. Fantastic book. I probably would’ve had more to say if I hadn’t waited 3 months to post about it.

Now we know by the end (though I suspected much earlier) that Richard had had his way with young Laura. I kept getting the sense throughout that there was also something incestuous going on between Richard and Winifred—she seems awfully attached to him…

I imagine some people will be annoyed by Iris’s lack of independence and will to be so controlled like that and not to apprise herself of what was going on with Richard and the factory and Richard and Laura and actively change things, but I think the point is that she was “sold off” at a fairly early age and was taken advantage of by Richard and Winifred.