Strange Things - Margaret Atwood

Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood

This is my all time favourite book. So now you know that I'm going to write a favourable review. Basically the book is based on the true story of Grace Marks, an Irish immigrant who lived and worked as a servant in Canada in the mid 1800's. She was convicted (along with another servant, McDermott) of the double murder of her boss and fellow maid. Atwood does an amazing job of evoking the atmosphere and day to day details of Grace's life as she travels from Ireland to Canada and becomes a servant in a well to do household before she arrives at the fateful residence of Mr Kinnear. The book centres around the efforts of Dr Simon Jordan as he visits Grace in the penitentiary ...

The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

Maybe it's been fashionable for a while now to write with a multiple perspective, but Atwood does it as well as anyone I've read. It's not the first time for her either - The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, The Robber Bride and others all have elements of the "story within a story". In The Blind Assassin, the conceit is taken to the extreme. The first layer is of course Atwood's telling of the tale she's called "The Blind Assassin". Within that there are several more stories. Two are being told by Iris, an aging ex-socialite and once a darling of Canada's elite. She narrates both her first-person present day story and, within that, her ...

The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

goodness. So what are we to make of the above quote? It is, of course, taken from "The Blind Assassin", the latest oeuvre of Canadian author Margaret Atwood, that won her the Booker Prize 2000. And my interpretation of this book lies in the above quote. It is obviously entirely subjective - many other readers will have reached different conclusions. The story centres around Iris, not her seemingly-dominant sister Laura. Laura is a more novel-worthy character, in her extremes of behaviour and eccentricities. Iris, on the other hand, is conventional - to say the least - and reticent. Her dominant characteristic is goodness, in its traditional sense. She stands ...