Review: A God In Ruins

A God In Ruins

By Kate Atkinson

Little, Brown, and Company May 2015

468 pages

From the library 

Readers went on a fascinating journey with Ursula Todd in Life After Life. Ursula loved many people, but perhaps her most beloved was her brother Teddy. In A God In Ruins, we follow Teddy through his experiences as a RAF pilot during WWII and into everyday life as a husband, father, and grandfather. Teddy shows us what it is like to live a future you never expected to see and to watch your children and grandchildren make choices you could never fathom.

A God in Ruins is told in alternating (and constantly moving) timelines, as we follow young, brash Teddy's days as a pilot and then the quotidian moments of work, family, and growing older. It could easily be called a war novel, as we follow Teddy on mission after mission. But I think it does this novel and Atkinson a disservice to leave it there. While we certainly see the horror and uncertainty of war, the more striking part for me was what came afterwards. Teddy feels the generational gaps very intensely, as his daughter joins a commune and makes irresponsible decisions that create a potentially unbridgeable gap between Teddy, his daughter, and his grandchildren. The heartbreak that he feels as he sees the lack of understanding and respect that the children have for him is palpable.

Teddy and his wife Nancy are forever distant with each other, as he wants to talk about the experiences of the war that forever changed him while Nancy is unable or unwilling to do the same about her time as a codebreaker. Teddy has never felt more like himself than when he led a group of men inside a tiny metal tube with a single goal giving each of them certainty of purpose. Teddy sees talking about it as a way to pay tribute to that time in his life and to the people who gave their lives during the war. How will anyone remember their lives and the sacrifices made by so many if no one is willing to talk about them?

Interestingly, Teddy sometimes muses over or tells his grandchildren about events that the readers experienced with him firsthand earlier or will see later in the book. And sometimes those events don't play out exactly the same way - no one has a perfect memory, after all. While Life After Life actually took readers through multiple versions of Ursula's life, this story reminds us that we are destined to live the important moments of our lives again and again as we retell our stories and remember our happiest and most heartbreaking experiences.

A God in Ruins is a tale about a family who fails, time after time, to connect with each other in meaningful and long-lasting ways. Atkinson manages to make us care for the most frustrating of characters as we watch the Todd family hurt and miss each other again and again. It is a story about war and memories and family and what it means to live a life that matters. This beautifully written book is a wonderful choice for the reader who is just encountering the Todd family for the first time or the one who adored them in Life After Life and is eager to spend more time with Ursula, Teddy, and the storytelling prowess of Kate Atkinson.

Review: Started Early, Took My Dog

Started Early, Took My Dog

Jackson Brodie #4

By Kate Atkinson

Reagan Arthur/Back Bay Books 2011

371 pages

From my shelves 

Jackson Brodie is back again in this fourth book from Kate Atkinson. He is still shaken by recent events and uses his newest case - trying to track down a woman's birth parents - to try to find his no good wife who swindled him out of his fortune. While Brodie traverses the countryside, Tracy Waterhouse makes an impulsive choice. As a former cop with ties to the case Brodie is investigating, Tracy knows better than to make emotional decisions. While she began the day with only plans for her upcoming vacation, she ends it with a little girl in tow. As always, Atkinson masterfully weaves together these disparate plots into one quiet and insightful story about secrets and taking care of the people we love.

As you start reading any of the books in this series, you may wonder how in the world these very dissimilar stories will come together. Some readers protest that Atkinson pushes the boundaries of what could actually happen. For the first time since starting this series, I had that feeling while reading Started Early, Took My Dog. The thing I really could not get over was a scene in the opening pages of the book. *SPOILER* Tracy Waterhouse, a mall security guard and former policewoman, pays a known druggie for a little girl she assumes is her abused daughter. Tracy tells us how she has seen this woman in several drug busts and that she is actually dragging the girl through the mall by one arm as she screams. I'm not doubting Tracy's desire to help the little girl, but I can't wrap my head around a former policewoman buying a child. *END SPOILER* 

As the book progressed, the worlds of Jackson Brodie and Tracy Waterhouse began to collide. But I was left scratching my head about another character. Tilly is an elderly actress who is playing a bit role on a TV show and suffering from the beginnings of dementia. While Atkinson creates a tragic and beautiful look into the mind of someone who is slowly losing all sense of herself, I kept trying to figure out how she was going to fit into the tapestry of characters. It isn't until the very end of the book that Tilly plays a pivotal role in the story, entirely by chance. I think this bothered me because I'm used to Atkinson connecting characters in deep and unexpected ways. This felt like she needed someone for this one moment and then wrote backwards, so she would have a backstory.

The characters in this book are looking back on their lives. Jackson has gone through several careers and is trying to decide what he wants to do with the rest of his life. He can't stop himself from thinking of his murdered sister and the women he has loved and lost. Tracy is looking to the end of her career and wondering what you do when the work is done, but you have no one to go home to. All of the characters are dealing with the feeling that as much as things change, so much stays the same. This is especially seen in the storylines of the various cases that are presented, as the strong continue to prey on the weak.

Started Early, Took My Dog continues Atkinson's tradition of imbuing Jackson Brodie and his companions with all the foibles and joys of humanity. The mysteries are intriguing, but the heart of this novel lives with the characters. While this isn't my favorite of the bunch, it's a great book and I will be interested to see if Jackson Brodie will make a return in another book. 

Review: Life After Life

Life After Life

By Kate Atkinson

Reagan Arthur Books/Little, Brown, and Co. April 2013

525 pages

From the library

This book has been the darling of critics and readers since it came out. Does it deserve all the hype? Check out my review at the Atlantic Highlands Herald here. 

Review: When Will There Be Good News?

When Will There Be Good News? 

Jackson Brodie #3

By Kate Atkinson

Back Bay Books 2010

388 pages

From my shelves

When Joanna Mason is six years old, her life is shattered forever by a brutal crime and the loss of her family. Thirty years later, the murderer is released from prison. That same week, a sixteen year old girl named Reggie alerts Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe that her employer Dr. Hunter is missing under suspicious circumstances. Monroe is skeptical but agrees to investigate when Hunter's husband explains away the disappearance with  lies. As Reggie worries about her employer and friend, Jackson Brodie boards a train that will take a fateful ride right through Reggie's neighborhood. These seemingly disparate story lines come together to create a book that readers will not want to put down.

While I would never ague that Atkinson can't write an excellent mystery, the best part of this book for me was the way in which old and new characters continued to surprise me. The novel opens with a horrific crime. The back of the book tells you this act will occur but I was so caught up with the fascinating characters being created before my eyes that I was truly shocked when it happened. We also meet up with Atkinson's characters Jackson Brodie and Louise Monroe from earlier books. Although we have encountered them before, Atkinson puts them in situations that were completely unexpected. Their actions make sense for their characters, but it's wonderful to be surprised as a reader.

Each of the characters are struggling to find some semblance of happiness. Brodie has married (again) and while he should be content, he finds that his mind wanders constantly to Louise and the possibility that he has another child. While he was happy to leave the world of the soldier and the policeman and the private eye behind, he is still searching for some sort of purpose and finding himself terribly unsatisfied. Louise has married the seemingly perfect man who drives her absolutely insane. And then we are introduced to Reggie, the new heroine of this book. She is living a truly difficult life. Everyone in her family is either dead or involved in crime yet she soldiers on, trying to find some semblance of happiness with the Hunter family. Reggie is a wonderful character, full of pluck and determination. I think Atkinson could easily write another book about this charming waif who steals the book away from the other characters.

When Will There Be Good News? is a book that is impossible to easily categorize. It's a thrilling mystery involving mistaken identities, kidnapping, and murder. It's an insightful character study of people who get nothing they want but carry on and people who get everything they want and are miserable. At its most basic and important level, it's a really well-written book.

Review: One Good Turn

One Good Turn

Jackson Brodie #2

By Kate Atkinson

Little, Brown, and Company 2006

418 pages

From the library

Jackson Brodie isn't a cop anymore and he has retired from being a private detective. Now he is just a man who has accompanied his actress girlfriend to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. But it seems that the world still needs his sleuthing abilities. Martin Canning is a writer who has the misfortune to witness the same fender bender as Jackson. But when one of the drivers approaches the other with a baseball bat, Martin acts without thought and decks him with his laptop bag. Now he is worried the furious driver is after him and enlists Jackson's reluctant assistance.

Atkinson is a master at taking several disparate plots and bringing them together in unexpected ways. As one reads through the book, it is nearly impossible to fathom the connections between Martin, the two car drivers, a Russian cleaning company, the CEO of a company that builds housing developments, and a female police detective. Ms. Atkinson teases the connections out slowly and the reader has to stay on her toes in order to catch the ways in which these characters are related. While this could be irritating if you are expecting a linear story line, it's wonderful for the mystery fan who craves that 'aha' moment. 

I enjoyed Case Histories, the first book featuring Jackson Brodie. This sequel was a bit flat for me because Jackson and Martin are somewhat similar characters. Neither of them are big fans of interacting with others but each has a compassionate core that compels them to say yes, even when it is a total stranger asking for their assistance. I think Brodie is a more lovable and interesting character when he is so completely different from any other character in the book.

I have the third book in this series, When Will There Be Good News?, on my bookshelf. I'm excited to see where Atkinson takes the relationship between Brodie and Detective Louise Monroe, which started in this book. It was almost comical to watch Brodie end up in all of these incriminating situations, only to be bailed out by a detective who isn't sure she can trust him.

One Good Turn is a great pick for the mystery reader who doesn't want to sacrifice developed characters for a fast-paced and twisty plot. Have you read any of the Jackson Brodie books? Which one is your favorite?


Happy Valentine's Day, lovely readers. If you promise to have an extra glass of wine for this pregnant lady, I will selflessly eat some extra chocolate for you. That sounds like a fair trade, right?? 

Review: Case Histories

Case Histories

By Kate Atkinson

Little, Brown, and Company September 2008

310 pages

From my personal library...hooray

Jackson Brodie is a private detective attempting to juggle several cases. At the beginning of the novel, the reader is presented with three stories. In the first, a young girl goes missing after she and her sister camp out in the backyard in a tent. In the next, a young woman is murdered while interning in her father’s office. In the third, a young woman goes to prison for murdering her husband with an axe in view of their baby girl. As Jackson becomes makes progress in the cases, he discovers that they are more connected than he could have ever imagined.

This novel is a mystery, but more importantly it is a story about the people who are left behind after tragedy. While Jackson does investigate the crimes, he also provides compassion and understanding for the survivors.  He empathizes with his clients because he too has experienced loss when his older sister was brutally raped and murdered. His kindness and his attempt to be a good father are his strong points, but our hero is very much flawed. He can’t stop fantasizing about the women he encounters and he is terrified that his ex-wife and the new man in her life will take his daughter away from him. He thinks that "she wouldn't be the same Marlee in twelve months' time: she would have different skin and different hair, she would have outgrown the shoes and the clothes she was wearing, she would have new buzzwords (New Zealand words), and she might not like Harry Potter anymore. But she would still be Marlee. She just wouldn't be the same." 

The thing I found most fascinating about this novel is the way that so many of the characters sit on the edge of likeability. I found myself often thinking that I didn’t really like many of the characters. In spite of this, I had a very serious need to find out what happened to them and how they were connected. These are very deeply injured people whose lives have been destroyed. The wreckage is not pretty, but Ms. Atkinson portrays it with compassion and sometimes humor.

This is a really interesting novel. I went back and forth trying to decide if I liked it or not. At times, I was not particularly enthusiastic about continuing. I think that’s because there is little imminent danger. These cases are cold and their resolution will likely not change anything in the present. I’m glad I stuck with it, though. The mysteries are wrapped up by the end, some more predictably than others. The characters will make you uncomfortable, make you wince, and make you think about putting this book down, but ultimately this is a good book. I will warn that it takes some time to get used to the peculiarities of the novel, the style, and the characters.

This is the first Jackson Brodie novel, and the first book I have read by this author. I somehow already own the third book, so I will be searching out the second. Atkinson is a good writer, with interesting style and quirks. While Case Histories takes some time to get comfortable with, it’s worth the read. 

Friends, as you read this I am on my way to the wonderful state of Maryland. Why is it so wonderful, you ask? Why, it's because my bestest friend Becca lives there. I will be visiting her today and Saturday (husbands included). Then on Sunday, there will be church and a hymn sing with a potluck. Try not to be too jealous... 

Have an amazing weekend, friends. I'll be back on Monday. See you then!