by Magda D. Healey

Created on: April 05, 2008

Grace Marks is a murderess. She is an ex-servant girl; in prison for having killed - or taking part in a murder of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress at the age of 16 . Her alleged partner in crime was hanged for his deeds but as opinions about her were widely divided she was spared the gallows and sentenced to life imprisonment. The next 30 years of Grace's life are spent in prisons and asylums although when we meet her, Grace claims having no memory of the murders. Dr Simon Jordan, a practitioner of just-being-born clinical psychology is employed by people who are trying to grant her pardon to prove her innocence.

Her remarkable story unravels before our eyes, being told by numerous voices including herself, Dr Jordan, his letters, press-cuttings, other letters and media relations of the time. Grace is a true character and the story of her alleged crime and the trial is real; but all that surrounds the raw facts of the murder, the trial and her subsequent imprisonment and release is Atwood's fiction. And mightily compelling fiction it is, using different voices, different styles and other devices to create the illusion of a collection of facts and reference materials interspersed with the internal monologue of the main character which constitutes the main storytelling device.

We learn the most about Grace from herself. She tells her own life story, the story she is telling - but not really telling - to Dr Jordan; from the childhood in poverty of Ireland through the crossing to Canada after her mother's death to her employment as a servant in several households in Canada and her growing up there to the last one where her fate is decided during this fateful day of murder.

There are more than two levels in this book; but two were important for me. One level is psychological and it deals with Grace's life and family history, her experiences, the trauma she undergoes as a teenage servant girl and the issue of madness in general. This level provides what is presented to readers as the solution. I will not give it away as the novel is partially - unbelievably for this kind of book - kept going by suspense. This psychological aspect is fascinating enough, but not exceptional.

The other layer of the book and the one I found the most remarkable was in the captivating evocation of the XIXth century mindset; and we have the opportunity to explore this mindset mainly through two characters: Grace Marks herself again and Dr Jordan. The themes that are touched

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