Margaret Atwood creates this novel around the real life story of Grace Marks who was convicted in Canada in 1843, along with fellow servant James McDermott, of the murder of their employer Thomas Kinnear and housekeeper Nancy Montgomery. Grace was only sixteen years old at the time (McDermott was older) and some clemency was applied sparing her the gallows for life imprisonment.
By 1859, Grace has been in and out of an asylum and holds a trustee position in the penitentiary, regularly allowed to serve in the Governor’s household. There is a body of opinion that maintains her innocence, claiming she was an innocent and unwilling accomplice to McDermott, involved against her will. Others see her as the evil and manipulative driver of the crime.
Enter Dr Simon Jordan, a young physician specialising in the diseases of the mind, full of modern ideas from Europe and ambitions to set up his own, forward-thinking institution. It his through his interviews with Grace that her full story unfolds. Or at least her version of it; can Dr Jordan, and the reader through him, believe all she says?
Meanwhile Dr Jordan has his own issues to deal with as a genteel but impoverished young professional susceptible to feminine charms, be they from Grace, the governor’s daughters or his distressed landlady.
Grace gives him the story of her childhood emigration from Ireland, her separation from her family, and her early employment as a servant girl. In that first job she makes and loses a friend in traumatic circumstance that could be significant in her subsequent actions. Those actions, too, are eventually related in their full horror. Dr Jordan’s exploits between sessions with Grace add colour and light relief while also heightening the tension.
It is all beautifully written, leaving much
for the reader to ponder, filter the ambiguities and come to their own
conclusion on Grace’s guilt or otherwise. One clear verdict is that it is a very
good read.
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