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Jump to navigationJump to searchBehind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (view source)
Revision as of 13:37, 9 May 2018
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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=Behind the Scenes at the Museum
|author=Kate Atkinson
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A confident and exuberant first novel charts the progress of a family though war and peace. It's a novel to settle into or it's difficult to grasp who's who, but it repays the effort handsomely. It's a book to buy and keep as it will deserve a second reading.
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=381
|publisher=Black Swan
|date=January 4, 1996
|isbn=0552996181
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>0552996181</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=0552996181|aznus=<amazonus>0552996181</amazonus>
}}
Bunty Lennox had never wanted to marry George but after the war he was all that was left. By the night that Ruby is conceived (rather grudgingly, on her part, it has to be said) she already has two children, the sensible but rather-distant Patricia and unpredictable and difficult Gillian. George isn't a lot of help - quite the reverse, in fact. On the night that Ruby is born he's in a pub in Doncaster explaining to a lady in an emerald dress and a D-cup that he's not married. Bunty's not much of a mother either and spends most of the time wishing that the children were elsewhere and that she was anywhere but the flat above the pet shop in the shadow of York Minster.
This is definitely a book to buy and keep. The writing is close to perfection and I don't think there's a superfluous word in the book. It's one that I'll be reading again and it's unlikely to date. Amazingly it's Atkinson's first novel and I'm going to look for some of her other work. I was put in mind of Maggie O'Farrell's [[After You'd Gone]] which was also a debut novel and I just hope that Atkinson's later work is not as disappointing as O'Farrell's.
{{amazontext|amazon=0552996181}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=42838220552996181}}
{{commenthead}}
|name=judy_b
|verb=said
|comment= I read this years ago when it first came out - it's hard to remember it in detail but it has always stood as one of my favourite novels I thought it was absolutely brilliant. Another very similar novel and possibly one with a slight edge on 'Behind the Scenes' is [[''Stand We at Last]] '' by Zoe Fairbairns.
}}
{{comment
|name=Sue
|verb=said
|comment='''Thanks for that, Judy - that's another one to go on the 'must look out for' list!
}}
{{comment
|name=Judy Docketty
|verb=said
|comment= Having already read 2 of her novels (Human Croquet and Case Histories), I was very keen to read another. I was not disappointed. It it probably the best novel I have ever read and enjoyed it enormously from start to finish. Although in places the novel is quite tragic, it also contains laugh out loud comic observations of everyday life. Fantastic!
}}
