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Human Croquet: A Novel by Kate Atkinson
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Human Croquet: A Novel (original 1997; edition 1997)

by Kate Atkinson

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,909498,655 (3.67)119
Once it had been the great forest of Lythe - a vast and impenetrable thicket of green.And here, in the beginning, lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor, visited once by the great Gloriana herself. But over the centuries the forest had been destroyed, replaced by Streets of Trees.The Fairfaxes have dwindled too; now they live in 'Arden' at the end of Hawthorne Close and are hardly a family at all. But Isobel Fairfax, who drops into pockets of time and out again, knows about the past. She is sixteen and waiting for the return of her mother - the thin, dangerous Eliza with her scent of nicotine, Arp ge and sex, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest.… (more)
Member:sylvan_eyre
Title:Human Croquet: A Novel
Authors:Kate Atkinson
Info:Picador (1997), Paperback, 352 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:mystery, english fiction, owned, 1/2

Work Information

Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson (1997)

  1. 40
    Behind the Scenes at the Museum 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.
  2. 00
    Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (KayCliff)
  3. 01
    Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (bnbookgirl)
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» See also 119 mentions

English (46)  Spanish (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (48)
Showing 1-5 of 46 (next | show all)
Isobel Fairfax is 16 years old, living in the decaying family home with her older brother Charles, crazed great-aunt Vinny and their father Gordon. Isobel’s mother ran off with another man years ago, and there is an absence in the middle of her life and that of her brother, an emptiness never to be filled - certainly not by Gordon’s new wife Debbie, who appears to believe that each person in her life is being inexplicably replaced with a robot. And Isobel is beginning to have a bit of trouble with time itself, never quite knowing what year it is or where she is located in the history of the world…. This is Kate Atkinson’s second novel, one that received not-great reviews at the time of its release, no doubt largely because it followed on her brilliant debut, “Behind the Scenes at the Museum.” But in fact, “Human Croquet” describes many of the themes that recur in her work, including time travel, dysfunctional families and unreliable narrators; one is never quite sure what to make of Isobel and how to react to what she says is happening in her life. I found the writing to be quite as lyrical as anything of Atkinson’s that I have read, and am very pleased to have stumbled upon this book; recommended! ( )
  thefirstalicat | Aug 31, 2023 |
I wish I had read this before I read Life after Life and A god in ruins, because both of those are much better time travel novels. This one is a bit of a muddle. The protagonist, Isobel, lives a life of abject misery. Her beloved mother is gone, replaced by a hapless stepmother who is a very pale imitation of the luminous creature from whom Isobel was born. Her handsome war-hero father is whiling away his time in their mouldering manor house (does he even have a job, having squandered his existence as a marginally successful village grocer by disappearing for some years?) And suddenly as she approaches the age of 16, Isobel begins dipping into pockets of time. At first these sojourns seem random, but then they seem to gel into something significant, preventing awful outcomes and precipitating others. The misery seems inescapable, and then she just kind of drifts into a dreamlike normality, a future that forgets all that has gone before but simply allows a kind of wispy happiness. Perhaps it is all a supernatural metaphor for life, but if so I felt like I missed it. Time is infinitely interesting because it is ultimately mysterious and unknowable, but Isobel never seems to really appreciate her gift, or the gift never manifests itself as something useful or enlightening to her. It’s weirdly unsettling. ( )
  karenchase | Jun 14, 2023 |
Mixed bag for me. Exotic Eliza meets pilot hero Gordon in a bombed out house in London. He is bewitched and quickly marries her. Her back story emerges slowly through the book, which is narrated by her daughter Isobel. At times confusing as we go between the present and the past. Twists and turns keep things interesting.
I want to read more of her work. ( )
  simbaandjessie | Jan 15, 2023 |
ove Kate Atkinson books. This was her second novel after [b:Behind the Scenes at the Museum|28940|Behind the Scenes at the Museum|Kate Atkinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1436172919l/28940._SX50_.jpg|29415] (which I loved).

I read somewhere that looking at an author's earlier book through the lens of their later books gives an interesting insight. The earlier books look like the trial runs on the themes that interest them, and that is clearly the case here.

This isn't Atkinson's best work, but her recurring themes are clearly coming to life here: dark fairy tales with tragic endings, multiple recurring and surreal timelines, the idea that we may have multiple chances and still get it wrong time after time, characters who are utterly flawed until we gain sympathy through an alternate point of view.

But she does a much better job pulling all these strings together in [b:Life After Life|15790842|Life After Life (Todd Family, #1)|Kate Atkinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1358173808l/15790842._SY75_.jpg|21443207] and [b:A God in Ruins|3722183|A God in Ruins (Todd Family, #2)|Kate Atkinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451442002l/3722183._SY75_.jpg|42652219].

This book was well written - and I felt compelled to keep reading just to see how she brought the crazy story lines to a close. She did a good job bringing closure except for I didn't like how the craziest parts of the book were explained as a dream during a coma. I liked the author's later books that just went for all-out magical realism. ( )
  sriddell | Aug 6, 2022 |
I really enjoyed this book up until the end, where I think it sort of spiralled off. She's an engagin read, the characters are funny and I really enjoyed both the fairy tale allusions and her playing with language. ( )
  jennybeast | Apr 14, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 46 (next | show all)
Isobel Fairfax, the heroine of ''Human Croquet,'' is an omniscient narrator who, paradoxically, often hasn't a clue about what has really happened. Like Ruby Lennox, the droll narrator of ''Behind the Scenes at the Museum,'' Isobel is a child with knowledge of family history and world events beyond and outside herself -- but somehow her possession of such wisdom is nevertheless plausible. She knows the past, she knows the future, but comprehending the present is an elusive task. Atkinson has a deft ability to convey that quality of simultaneous knowing and not knowing that is fundamental to human thought. In this way, both her novels feature a Muriel Sparkish motif of the narrative voice alternately running ahead and lagging behind the steadily advancing sequence of events.

added by KayCliff | editNew York Times, Weber. Katharine (Jul 6, 1997)
 
The quirky imagination, subversive humor and instinct for domestic chaos that Atkinson displayed in her first novel, Whitbread winner Behind the Scenes at the Museum, are rampantly evident again here, as the British author audaciously fuses several genres in a story that does not quite live up to expectations.
 

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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Kate Atkinsonprimary authorall editionscalculated
Tamminen, LeenaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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This green and laughing world he sees Water and plains, and waving trees, The skin of birds and the blue-doming skies 'Ode for the Spring of 1814', Leigh Hunt
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For my mother, Myra Christiana Keech
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Call me Isobel.
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Once it had been the great forest of Lythe - a vast and impenetrable thicket of green.And here, in the beginning, lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor, visited once by the great Gloriana herself. But over the centuries the forest had been destroyed, replaced by Streets of Trees.The Fairfaxes have dwindled too; now they live in 'Arden' at the end of Hawthorne Close and are hardly a family at all. But Isobel Fairfax, who drops into pockets of time and out again, knows about the past. She is sixteen and waiting for the return of her mother - the thin, dangerous Eliza with her scent of nicotine, Arp ge and sex, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest.

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