Behind the Scenes at the Museum

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. show more 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. show less

I rarely give books 5 stars. Although I note this is the second time in a fortnight! But I enjoyed this book so much, and mainly because of its dry wit. The story is many-layered, occasionally confusing (and sometimes intentionally so), often quite sad or confronting, but invariably funny. There is the odd belly-laugh, but most of it just wry and smile-worthy. This is Atkinson's debut novel and worthy of commendation in that category. Its debut-ness is hinted at by the many short stories it contains, yet all these are episodes in a grander plot that has its twists, turns and satisfying resolutions. I think I've found a new favourite.

I initially hated the first chapter. (Really, the story of our main character from conception? And it wasn't scientifically accurate.). But I liked the book more as it went, and in the final chapters a plot twist made the whole thing make sense. So I am a fan, but most of the rest of the book group were ambivalent about the book.

We live in a place called 'Above the Shop' which is not a strictly accurate description as both the kitchen and dining-room are on the same level as the Shop itself and the topography also includes the satellite area of the Back Yard. The Shop (a pet shop) is in one of the ancient streets that cower beneath the looming dominance of York Minster. In this street lived the first printers and the stained-glass craftsmen that filled the windows of the city with coloured light. The Ninth Legion Hispana that conquered the north marched up and down our street, the via praetoria of their great fort, before they disappeared into thin air. Guy Fawkes was born here, Dick Turpin was hung a few streets away and Robinson Crusoe, that other great hero, show more is also a native son of this city. Who is to say which of these is real and which a fiction?

Ruby Lennox narrates her life story beginning with her conception in 1951. Each chapter provides a window to another year in Ruby's life. Ruby defines herself in relationship to her mother, her older sisters, her father, and her extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Each chapter concludes with a footnote that anchors Ruby to her family's past in the stories of her grandmother Nell's and her mother Bunty's youths.

Up to now, my only experience with Kate Atkinson has been the Jackson Brodie novels. I liked Case Histories and loved the rest. I picked up her first novel with some trepidation. Would it live up to the Jackson Brodie novels? I'm happy to say that it exceeded my high expectations. Atkinson strikes a perfect balance between strong characters, vivid settings, and narrative pace in a distinctive voice. As she does in the Jackson Brodie novels, Atkinson follows chains of small events that propel characters toward major events that will change the course of her characters' lives. Atkinson is well on her way to becoming my favorite currently active author. show less

Kate Atkinson writing about family history, with a Yorkshire setting - the perfect novel! Reading on my Kindle, I didn't feel the heft of this epic undertaking until I finished, which says a lot about the skill of the author. Instead, Ruby's story, and the history of her family for three generations, complete with 'footnotes', swept me up and carried me along for a week of boring bus journeys.

The 'home' setting might have won me over but I really felt like I recognised these characters, from wry narrator Ruby, who is hiding one of the biggest 'twists in the tale', to battle-axe Bunty in the pet shop, and sisters Lilian and Nell during the First World War, growing up with a fearsome stepmother in place of the ethereal Alice, who vanished show more in the night after having her photograph taken by a Frenchman. I loved the storytelling too, with Ruby's sharp observations and appreciation of history undercutting tragedy after tragedy. Brothers and sons go to war and never return, children are lost in youth, generations fade into sepia photographs and are replaced by new lives, but 'history is what you take with you'. The humour, mostly dark but occasionally farcical, is also spot on. The flip-flopping through time kept me reading, whereas a straight 'aga saga' starting with Alice and ending with Ruby's own children would have been very dry. Instead I was treated to lots of satisfying 'aha!' moments in the footnotes chapters.

Wonderful escapism, full of history, humour and heartache. show less

Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum is a real treat. The book opens in 1951 with the conception of the Rose Lennox, narrated by Rose herself (from an insider's perspective, of course). The wee little one-celled, oopps, two-celled person, oopps, four-celled now, has all the vocabulary and literary references of a grown-up. It is a quirky and highly engaging narrative voice and I loved it.

Interspersed with Rose's voice are footnotes that tell the backstories of the extended family. Boys go off to war, girls get pregnant, families squabble, people die, small children too. There is sadness and relief, amusement, mystery, and ordinary detail of ordinary people. The pleasure of the book is Atkinson's entertaining voice and her show more ability to recall and relate what it was to be small. She nailed me with this passage:

I am sent to bed first and have to negotiate this treacherous journey entirely on my own. This is manifestly wrong. I have adopted certain strategies to help us in this ordeal. It's important, for example, that I keep my hand on the banister rail at all times when climbing the stairs (the other one is being clutched by Teddy). That way, nothing can hurtle unexpectedly down the stairs and knock us flying into the Outer Darkness. And we must never look back. Never, not even when we can feel the hot breath of the wolves on the backs of our necks, not when we can hear their long, uncut claws scrabbling on the wood at either edge of the stair-carpet and the growls bubbling deep in their throats.

I felt the same way as a child, though I was much less eloquent about it. I'll be adding Kate Atkinson's other books to my To Read pile.



see more book reviews on my blog: :: Adventures in Daily Living :: show less

This is the story of Ruby Lennox, from her inauspicious conception in a flat above a Pet Shop in 1952 in York, UK to the present day. It also delves into the lives of many of Ruby’s female ancestors in her mother’s line and ties them all together with interesting threads and themes—some minor, some major, and all very interesting. Bopping back and forth between present-day, World War I era and World War II, the author skillfully weaves the story of just how Ruby came to be and gives us some insight as to why she is the way she is—although Ruby is the last to figure this out. I did glean the major plot twist well ahead of time (as indeed, I think the author meant the reader to do) but it in no way spoiled the story. Chock full of show more the realities of each of the times the story lands in, I loved this book and thoroughly enjoyed the imagery, the voices of the different people and once again being reminded that what we do today can have far-reaching ripples of effect for years and years. Wonderful!! A+ show less