Attention Kate Atkinson Fans

[coalescent]

Kate Atkinson's Case Histories was the first selection of the litblog co-op. For those who might not be aware (I'm thinking white_hart might be interested):

AUGUST 29 - KATE ATKINSON

Well don't say LBC doesn't keep its word - however late. Kate Atkinson will, indeed, be dropping by here next Monday, August 29th to discuss Case Histories. If you've got any questions you'd like forwarded to her in advance, please drop us a line and we'll make sure she gets them all.

In other words, today. And, indeed, she has already started blogging, although I imagine things won't fully kick off until America gets out of bed.

Comments

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I have that on my to-be-read heap. In fact, I would have been reading it now, had Dan not lent me Arthur and George last weekend.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I read it over the weekend. It seemed to to be a perfectly good book, but about characters and things I had absolutely no interest in. white_hart's description, a way back, of her short story collection intrigued me, though.

[white_hart]

I can't say I'm entirely surprised by your reaction; she's a very good writer, but although her books put a new spin on the family saga/domestic drama subgenre of mainstream literary fiction, ultimately that's what they are and somehow I didn't think that would really be your thing.

Re Not The End of the World (the short story collection), I suspect that you might find the same thing; the stories use a lot of elements of myth and fantasy, and are packed with references to popular-culture sf shows (mainly Buffy but a fair bot of Star Trek too), but they aren't really sfnal at all. Atkinson just uses the fantastic elements to cover the same themes (mothers and children, family, secrets) as in her other books, just in a slightly different way.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I dunno; I don't think it's the form that's the problem. I've read family sagas before, sfnal and non-sfnal, and enjoyed them. I think it's more the setting. Atkinson's England seems a pretty dreary place, very middle-class even when it appears to be trying not to be, full of people with almost no self-awareness at all.

And that's exactly how you described the collection last time, and it sounds as intriguing as it did then. :)

[white_hart]

You're welcome to borrow it - let me know if you're going to be in Oxford any time soon.

I see what you mean about the setting, although I haven't read Case Histories yet so can't comment on that; I remember Atkinson said it was more realistic than the earlier novels, so I could imagine that it might well be rather grimmer in tone. But none of her novels are exactly happy books. Her writing (and her heroines, in the first three novels at least) sparkles, and the elements which I'm going to call magic realism even though I know she hates the term lift the books out of the mundane, but the actual stories themselves are pretty depressing, full of loveless family relationships, people lost through death and separation, characters who never achieve their full potential. I don't think the short stories are much different, either; a couple of them I found almost shockingly bleak.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I was trying to avoid saying it might be the realism that's causing me problems, because it makes me sound awfully shallow. But there was a sense of familiarity to the whole thing, and I think that's what I found depressing. More than the plot, which was certainly full of dark and depressing things, I felt trapped in this world I know too well. Compared to something like Saturday, or Things Fall Apart, or A Thread of Grace (to list some of the most mimetic novels I've read this year), it wasn't showing me anything I hadn't seen before, or making me think about things I had seen before in a new way.

It's a worry when I'm quite happy to read Stephen Baxter destroying the universe for the nth time but can't handle a simple crime story, isn't it? :)

(But this is one reason why I think I might like the shorts more, they sound as if they have a little more colour. Of course, I should read the other books you lent me first.)

[white_hart]

As I haven't read any of the other novels you mention I can't really say how they compare; otoh, if Saturday is anything like Enduring Love I think my reaction might be rather similar to yours to Case Histories. I could see that EL was a good book, but it did absolutely nothing for me.

I seem to recall there being something in one of the papers not too long ago about the way that men rarely read novels by women, whereas women read novels by both men and women; it was certainly very noticeable at Borders that evening that the majority of people who had enjoyed Atkinson's writing enough to come and see her were women. Again, I haven't read CH, but the other novels and the short stories are very much focused on women, on women's experiences and relationships; even where the focus shifts to male characters they still tend to be explored in terms of their relationships with the significant women in their lives. I don't know whether, as a woman, I find it easier to engage with her writing than a man might, or whether my experiences put me closer to the characters so that the novels shed new light on things I have some understanding of already.

It's a worry when I'm quite happy to read Stephen Baxter destroying the universe for the nth time but can't handle a simple crime story

Destruction of the universe is such an obviously fictional event that, as a reader, one can just go along for the ride, whereas a well-written novel set in a carefully-drawn 'real' world which chimes closely with the reader's experience can be profoundly depressing largely because it's fr more difficult to put it aside with the consoling thought that 'it's just a story'. Which may well be why genre fiction is so often considered 'easier' than mainstream literary fiction, however complex it may be.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall there being something in one of the papers not too long ago about the way that men rarely read novels by women, whereas women read novels by both men and women;

This was in The Times, I remember ripping the article out so I could look it up ont web and post it here but alas it wasn't on their site. It was a bloody stupid article.

The central character of CH is a man but there are several viewpoint characters. I don't think the reader's sex makes a difference to engaging with Atkinson's works, rather is coalescent is a mimetophobe/genretard/wronghead*.

* Delete as applicable.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I was trying to avoid saying it might be the realism that's causing me problems, because it makes me sound awfully shallow.

Must bite tongue. Failing.

Failing...

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Bah. I agree with some of the criticisms in the Minority Report, too, but my point is that I have liked other mimetic novels with similar problems this year, so it shouldn't be just that it's a mimetic novel that's giving me trouble. Perhaps it comes down to a lack of perspective; there was nothing in the book that felt insightful or new to me. Only familiar.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

but my point is that I have liked other mimetic novels with similar problems this year, so it shouldn't be just that it's a mimetic novel that's giving me trouble.

I knew what you were saying, I was just teasing :P I understand your point of view entirely: it's not a political work, it's not a philosophical work, it's not a sociological work, it is simply about fairly universal aspects of late Twentieth Century Britain (those old favourites love, sex and death.) As you say:

Atkinson's England seems a pretty dreary place, very middle-class even when it appears to be trying not to be, full of people with almost no self-awareness at all.

I think you are right but I would suggest this is what England is like.