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Behind the scenes at the museum by Kate…
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Behind the scenes at the museum (original 1995; edition 2008)

by Kate Atkinson

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
4,8771342,259 (3.95)424
In her profoundly moving, uniquely comic debut, Kate Atkinson introduces readers to the mind and world of Ruby Lennox, born above a pet shop in York at the halfway point of the twentieth century, and determined to understand both the family that precedes her and the life that awaits her. Taking her own conception as her starting point, the irrepressible Ruby narrates a story of four generations of women, from her great-grandmother's affair with a French photographer, to her mother's unfulfilled dreams of Hollywood glamour, to her young sister's efforts to upstage the Queen on Coronation Day. Hurtling in and out of both World Wars, economic downfalls, the onset of the permissive '60s, and up to the present day, Ruby paints a rich and vivid portrait of family heartbreak and happiness.… (more)
Member:Baukis
Title:Behind the scenes at the museum
Authors:Kate Atkinson
Info:[Amsterdam]: Pandora 2008
Collections:Your library
Rating:****1/2
Tags:Yorkshire, familiekroniek, magisch realisme, moeder-dochterrelatie, zussen, sterke vrouwen

Work Information

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (1995)

  1. 50
    The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (Smiler69)
  2. 50
    The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Smiler69)
  3. 10
    Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson (starfishian)
    starfishian: Atkinson has written books in a variety of genres, settings and topics. Human Croquet reminds me very much of Behind the Scenes; if you liked one, no doubt you will like the other.
  4. 10
    Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier (souci)
    souci: A not-romanticized look at the period
  5. 00
    Family Baggage by Monica McInerney (KimarieBee)
  6. 00
    When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman (jayne_charles)
  7. 01
    The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (hbsweet)
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» See also 424 mentions

English (126)  French (2)  Dutch (2)  Spanish (1)  German (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (133)
Showing 1-5 of 126 (next | show all)
I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. On the one hand, it is a beautifully written, moving (if depressing) and thorough account of three generations surviving in the face of death, infidelity and alienation. On the other hand, after 300 pages, a reader gets bored of every female character getting pregnant, running away from home and/or marrying an emotionally distance if not frankly abusive husband and regretting her life. It ends up feeling flat at best and at worst, a little misogynistic that even the smartest female characters get entangled in such things.

On a practical level, the intertwined narratives of many generations playing through the same script are very hard to keep straight, and I ended up needing a diagram to remember if Frank was Nell's husband or Alice's and how exactly Edmund was related to Bunty and who exactly Betty was, again? I get the parallels Atkinson is trying to draw, but they work better when she gives the characters enough individuality that the reader can keep them straight.

The true redeeming aspect of the novel is Ruby -- the protagonist. Her thoughts are vivid, full of metaphor and symbolism and yet relatable. The book truly shines in Ruby's nightmares -- inchoate end of the world fantasies, in which the familiar twists with a certainty of catastrophe -- and the way in which they mature with Ruby. These nightmares reflect the heart of Atkinson's narrative -- the way in which the families are both familiar and yet ill-meaning, self-involved and chaotic, which she does equally skillfully. ( )
  settingshadow | Aug 19, 2023 |
Darky humourous look at four generations of late 19C - mid 20C Yorkshire women with decidedly mixed feelings (honest ones) about their children; epiphanies re 'leading the wrong life' resonate throughout. Better 2nd time around when one can concentrate on the story, words and imagery rather than only plot. ( )
  saschenka | Mar 12, 2023 |
Re-reading old favorites, and this one blew me away all over again. ( )
  kamlibrarian | Dec 23, 2022 |
Set mostly in York, England, this is a multigenerational family saga in which protagonist Ruby Lennox narrates the story of her life from conception in 1951 into adulthood. She of her distant mother, two siblings, grandmother, and great grandmother. Ruby inserts what she calls “footnotes” to provide the necessary background and historic context. It is character-driven. It covers family secrets and tragedies. The writing is solid. My main issue with it is that it is not particularly engaging. I was not enthralled with the idea of a narrator that was self-aware at conception, especially in a book that is realistic in all other ways. It really drags in places, and I was tempted to set it aside. I liked it but didn’t love it. ( )
  Castlelass | Oct 30, 2022 |
This is one of those marmite books that people seem to either love or hate. As you can see, from my 5 star rating, I loved it!

But, I wasn't always sure that I would. I read it for my book group and the description wasn't promising. It seemed to be about a bunch of Yorkshire women blaming their husbands for all their wrong choices in life. I think I married one of those, so you can see why I was a little wary :)

But Kate Atkinson writes with a light and amusng style and the fact that the main story is viewed through the eyes of a child makes it entertaining and accessible. Much of it is very much a kitchen-sink drama, with drudgery, family tragedies and infidelities throughout - which is entirely in keeping with the 1950s / 60s setting. But think Adrian Mole rather than Harold Pinter.

Those who didn't like it pointed to the large number of background characters, that can be difficult to keep track of and are often met out of sequence. It is very much like somebody narrating their family history and talking about people that they know well, but you have never met.

The structure is also quirky. The main story of Ruby's childhood is fairly straightforward and dealt with in sequence (but there is an early mystery that you sense she is blanking out - although the hints are there throughout). But each chapter has a 'footnote', which is frequently longer than the chapter itself, that deals with some aspect of Ruby's recent ancestry. The best way to deal with it is to view it as a novel and a series of vignettes / short stories running in parallel.

One of my fellow book-clubbers also wrote out Ruby's family tree as she read the book to help keep track of everybody (wish I'd thought of that).

Who would enjoy this book? Anybody who likes a quirky style, those who can handle multiple characters; and those who like to be kept guessing, because some things are hinted at, but not revealed until right near the very end.

Incidentally, no museums in this book. The reference is to the Castle Museum in York, which has artifacts from a variety of periods and specialises in common social history. ( )
  Poodlequest | Jul 1, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 126 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (6 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Atkinson, Kateprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Blasberg, Evelin Sudakowa-Übersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jameson, SusanNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Peterson, MarieForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Simó, VictoriaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Torndahl, LenaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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In her profoundly moving, uniquely comic debut, Kate Atkinson introduces readers to the mind and world of Ruby Lennox, born above a pet shop in York at the halfway point of the twentieth century, and determined to understand both the family that precedes her and the life that awaits her. Taking her own conception as her starting point, the irrepressible Ruby narrates a story of four generations of women, from her great-grandmother's affair with a French photographer, to her mother's unfulfilled dreams of Hollywood glamour, to her young sister's efforts to upstage the Queen on Coronation Day. Hurtling in and out of both World Wars, economic downfalls, the onset of the permissive '60s, and up to the present day, Ruby paints a rich and vivid portrait of family heartbreak and happiness.

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