Week 31: Alias Grace

This week's book:
Alias Grace
By Margaret Atwood

Hmm, well, I finally finished this week's book. I have had it since maybe forever. Ok, maybe around six months. I saw a trailer for the Netflix adaptation of a TV series and I thought that sounded interesting.

Last year, Hulu came out with The Handmaid's Tale and everyone (including my sister) went bananas about it. The Handmaid's Tale was written by Margaret Atwood, who happen to have written the book I read this past week. I’m assuming Netflix saw how well Hulu did with The Handmaid's Tale and went like “ Whoa, what other books did this Atwood broad write?” I don't know if it went exactly like that, but you get the idea.

I started reading The Handmaid's Tale back around the 2016 elections. After the outcome of those elections I was very, umm, yeah, no way to explain how I felt. When my sweet husband saw the plot of the book I was reading he said for the first and only time. “Yeah that sounds depressing as hell and you should probably stop reading that.” I did finally read the rest of the book about six months later. If you haven't already learned what The Handmaid's Tale is about, just imagine the whole world goes screwy and women are treated like baby making machines and people get killed for no apparent reason. Sounds super happy right? Surprising enough the plot was not the issue I had about the book, it was that Atwood doesn't really believe in punctuation. I never knew who the French toast was talking or thinking or whatever.

Well, I read Alias Grace, which wasn't as depressing, well it was still depressing at parts but not as violent as Handmaid's. This book is about a woman who has been in a prison/insane asylum for about fifteen or so for helping with a double murder. The thing is she doesn't remember anything about the day the murders took place. She in interviewed by a young doctor who doesn't seem that sane himself. It sounds like a cool plot, a young doctor trying to figure out if she is lying or crazy or whatever. Well, you never find out. Just like in The Handmaid's Tale, the last section is kind of like, “oh poop I have to transition from my cool idea to the end of the book, so here’s the next ten years in a few pages." Maybe it's just Atwood's style, but I was disappointed.

Alias Grace is based on a true story and so I guess I was hopeful, but it ended up being kind of boring and blah. I did get a kick out of the fact that Grace is quilting the whole time (which since I am a quilter myself I really enjoyed). Each section of the book is named after a different quilt pattern and there is a drawing of the block Grace is working on. I wouldn't recommend the book but I am still hoping the series is on Netflix so I can compare the book to the show.