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.
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Date: 2005-08-30 10:47 am (UTC)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.