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Originally Posted by gmw
I fail to understand why a fictionalised motive is any better or worse, or more or less important, than a fictionalised conclusion. Once any part of the story is fictionalised then - unless the author makes very clear which parts are fiction and fact - the reader is left not knowing where the lines were drawn and may as well be reading a totally fictional story.
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Because a conclusion is definite, even in fiction, but a motive is always a combination of a lot of factors, and a novel can explore them. Here, we are hearing Grace tell her story--which is her personal fictionalization of events; whether or not she's a murderer, she's telling a story, as we all do when we recount our past. What in Grace's story brought her to be involved in murder, even if only as a bystander?
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As far as I am concerned I've read a work of fiction inspired by what happened to Grace Marks. Interesting for its added realism, maybe (although for me this turned out not to be true), but otherwise little different to reading any other fictional work.
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Is anyone saying it's anything but fiction? But it still should try to adhere to the known facts of the case--at least I think it should. Cases in which there's doubt are a lot more fascinating than ones that are definitively solved. People still come up with theories about Jack the Ripper, wonder about Lizzie and her ax, imagine (despite DNA) that Anastasia survived. Grace Marks may not be in their league, but with the long fight for a pardon, she must have been quite a figure of fascination in her day.
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I think this is an interesting perspective, and one I don't think Atwood explored particularly well. Perhaps in a more fictional work the freedom would have existed to express this more clearly.
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I think it's obvious that Grace was trapped--she spent her whole life in a trap and had no reasonable way of escape. She never had real choices or options; she had to do what she was told. Even when she was pardoned, she was essentially forced into marriage; she had no other way to survive than to go along with someone else's decision about her life.