Not normally a fan of short stories, it was only that the author of Stone Mattress was Margaret Atwood that made me give them a try. And I'm so glad I did. Her writing has always been a delight but here she has sharpened her wit pen and turned it on the dark matter of the end of life. So what we get are brilliantly subtle pieces that are as good as anything she has ever written. Even Charis, Roz and Tony put in an appearance as a tiny sequel to "The Robber Bride", obviously after demise of Zenia. This is one book to which I shall certainly return.
The Glorious Heresies is an incredibly rude, slangy story, full of drugs, alcohol and sex. The underworld of an Irish city is beautifully portrayed in the language of the gutter. It took some getting used to but when I finally sorted out who was who and why, this debut novel from Lisa McInerny became a gripping tale of the secrets, lies and murder. Modern catholic Ireland comes in for hammering, both in terms of religion and finance. Low level gangsters permeate this novel like a bad hangover, and there plenty of those. What will this brilliant new writer come up with next?
I am a huge fan of Kate Atkinson, possibly my favourite author. I gave five stars to "Life after Life" and wished I could give it more. Same again for "Not the End of the World" which I described as "sharp, witty, intelligent, modern. In fact everything I love in a book. Pure genius.". Unfortunately A God in Ruins was a huge disappointment. Sharp? No. Witty? Missing completely (where were those big laughs in the brackets that punctuate the novel?) Intelligent? Hardly. Modern? Undoubtedly but somehow misguided this time?
The central story of Teddy's exploits with bomber command in World War 2 left me cold, somehow I think that this was not Atkinson's area (sharp, witty, intelligent all missing) and she treats her hard researched facts with ponderous respect. All the more surprising when early on Teddy's parents refer to the earlier war which had been "a rip in the fabric of their lives and she had sewn it up neatly" and their neighbour comments "unless you can do very good invisible stitching, there'll always be a scar won't there?". Trademark Atkinson but rarely repeated.
The family drama is actually a lot better than Teddy's war. But Atkinson's ultimate trick means we have to get a rather dismal look at his family post war. I don't think that worked very well compared with her earlier novels where the characters maybe flawed but are never boring. How it could win the Costa Novel award over Patrick Gale's "A Place Called Winter" is a travesty. Having said all that, even a disappointing Kate Atkinson book is better than most fiction.
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