Kate Atkinson
Paperback | Pages: 288 pages Rating: 3.75 | 4384 Users | 435 Reviews
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| Title | : | Not the End of the World |
| Author | : | Kate Atkinson |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 288 pages |
| Published | : | October 27th 2004 by Back Bay Books (first published November 4th 2002) |
| Categories | : | Short Stories. Fiction. Contemporary. Fantasy. European Literature. British Literature. Literary Fiction. Mystery |
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4★ A favourite author, a favourite genre (short stories), and a theme I enjoy – recurring characters. I liked it but expected to like it more. I always enjoy her ingenuity and ideas and writing style. I think these could be fables for our time. I particularly liked the first and last stories, where two ingenuous girls wander through shops, dreaming aloud in detail about their perfect weddings one day while “the end of the world” is actually taking place around them. At first, it seems weird when they marvel at fabrics and such while noting that there is an alert for fire in the haberdashery department. Trudi begins to panic, as she smells smoke, but Charlene carries on imagining their future life: “ ‘Or we could lead an even simpler life,’ Charlene said hurriedly, ‘a life where there are no machines and where we would live on a green hillside and sleep under the stars and gather kindling in the woods. And we would keep animals-' ‘What kind of animals?’ Trudi asked, as everything from taffeta to winceyette suddenly went up in flames.” The art of distraction to avert panic? They continue this inane conversation even as they make their escape. There is more to it than this, of course, but it certainly makes me think of the head-in-the-sand approach so many of us have toward the current state of our world. (We need coffee. What's in the fridge?) I always enjoy Atkinson’s writing: “her ankles like melting Brie above those bloody awful faux Birkenstocks” “The man was the color of newly poured concrete.” There’s birth, life, and death. “When he celebrated his fortieth birthday, Addison had neither child nor wife. When he celebrated his forty-first, he had both, one inside the other. Every morning when Addison woke up, he was surprised anew by these two facts.” A different wife: “Romney had opted to be knocked unconscious and split open rather than give birth naturally. Missy favoured natural childbirth whenever possible. She thought it was character forming for a child to have to fight its way into existence. Missy herself was a twin and had made sure she’d elbowed her way out first, ahead of her brother.” Parents will relate to another wife and mother: “They didn’t want a relationship with her, they just wanted her to exist somewhere in the background (I haven’t got any clean clothes). If she died, would her soul migrate? Into an insect, a tadpole, a bean?” Trudi and Charlene reappear in the last story, having lowered their sights from dreaming of “peaches in Moscato wine, Madagascar green peppercorns, rose-petal champagne. . . " to something they think is more realistic. “ ‘ From now on,’ Trudi said, ‘I only want good, simple things. A bushel of russet apples, a truckle of cheddar cheese, a firkin of bloodred win. Clean linen sheets, rinsed in lavender water and then dried in the sun and the wind on an old-fashioned rope in an orchard. A good book, a small dog, a single strand of pearls.’ “ Which is why we read--to transport ourselves out of our We Need Coffee, What's in the Fridge lives to either the imaginary delicatessen or the Good Life (but with power and indoor plumbing). Quirky, well-written stories. Reliable Atkinson read that gives pause for thought.List Books Supposing Not the End of the World
| Original Title: | Not the End of the World |
| ISBN: | 0316159379 (ISBN13: 9780316159371) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Epithetical Books Not the End of the World
Ratings: 3.75 From 4384 Users | 435 ReviewsCommentary Epithetical Books Not the End of the World
Charlene was pinned down by sniper fire in the north of the city on her way back from a wedding fair.Not the End of the World showcases a different side of Kate Atkinson to Life After Life and A God in Ruins, more darkly humorous and playful.It's a collection of short stories but all with a slightly surreal slant. The first, from which the opening quote is taken, Charlene and Trudi Go Shopping, has two friends shopping and discussing increasingly fantastical wish-lists but it a city that isI haven't been able to get either daughter interested in The Twilight Zone, not as TV, nor as collections of really marvelous short stories. The episode or two I've made them watch is interesting as text, but way too melodramatic as drama. I mention that because this is a collection of short fiction that comes from a twilight zone. Things are not as we would normally expect, although they are interconnected. The mood, as in the Jackson Brodie books, is melancholy with occasional bright spots. I
I always enjoy Kate Atkinson's writing, and these stories are no exception. She smoothly weaves surreal/magical realist elements into her stories of ordinary people in everyday settings. If you have an affection for classical mythology, you will enjoy her use of gods, goddesses, and mythological events to add a layer of metaphor and magic to the experiences of her contemporary characters. If you are a fan of the Jackson Brodie detective novels, don't expect the same stuff here. These are
Okay, I'm not a writer, but this book just seemed like some sort of practice exercise you would do for a class: Take all the random characters that have been bouncing around in your head but you haven't been able to work into a novel. Write them into some random scenes. Give a character from each short story a cameo in a following story. For further cohesiveness, make sure each story references Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and add a boring framing story at the beginning/end. That said, Kate
I'm not a big fan of short stories, but this is something else. It was the only book written by Kate Atkinson that I hadn't read, and I'm so glad I did. They could easily be described as "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" to borrow the title of Edgar Allan Poe's collection. Each has a grounding in reality whilst at the same time being somewhat fantastical. I have no knowledge of Greek Gods, but they obviously have a lot to answer for. Each story is a perfect little gem, and there are
I assumed the stories would all be completely separate, so I was surprised to discover links between them. I loved experiencing a sense of recognition when minor characters from one story got their chance to shine in a later tale. I liked the way it tied the whole book together, as did the recurring themes of Greek mythology, death, the fictional soap Green Acres, Buffy, and the mysterious wolfkin. My favourite tales were probably Unseen Translation and The Cat Lover. I thought the first and
These short stories delighted me so much that, before I'd even finished reading them, I went out in search of more books by Kate Atkinson. I've now read all her novels as well as this book of stories and have pressed them all upon my book-reading friends. NOT THE END OF THE WORLD is a good introduction to this exceptionally readable, humorous, yet seriously literary author. It includes stories that at first seem unrelated, but as one progresses through the collection, themes emerge, and one
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