[issybird]

In a synchronicity of timing, a week ago the Guardian had an article about Top 10 modern Victorian novels, including Alias Grace.

They had this to say:

Atwood has always given us big ideas, but she hasn’t always shown as much interest in people. Alias Grace is as much a novel of ideas as any she has written, but is centred for once on a transfixing study of character. Grace Marks was a real (and notorious) historical character, an Irish maid convicted in 1843 of a brutal double murder. While brilliantly dramatising the Victorian urge to medicalise femininity, this novel dignifies its central character even as it wrings from the question of her guilt a merciless degree of suspense.

There's a lot to discuss there, but in a way the tag line to the article is what interested me most:

Narrative tricks minted in the 19th century are still working in contemporary fiction by authors from Margaret Atwood to Sarah Waters

as that was the point of my own Goodreads reviews. With Goodreads, I generally don't bother with a full-on review, but just focus on a point or two to serve as a memory-jogger, if nothing else. Coincidentally, this is what I had to say:

Among the dualities explored by Atwood is that of the Victorian novel v. a 20th century perspective on the Victorian novel. To the extent this is to function as a Victorian novel, it's heavy weather. Much is explained that would be taken as a given and the middle of the book is rather a slog as nothing happens. Still, there's much going on underneath and the issues engage. There are no answers

In short, I thought it worked as an examination of issues, but it didn't succeed in that greatest of all qualities of the Victorian novel, being a good read.