Angel and Esme deserve each other. In their own ways, both are hideous people. Angel especially is selfish, callous, difficult, self obsessed and cruel to the people who are close. Even when she is fifteen. At least she is not unfaithful as is Esme. "He had never found women mysterious, but monotonously, blatantly predatory". No excuse.
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor is a witty and occasionally very funny story. But as Angel's mother says "writing stories wont butter many parsnips, I can tell you". But she does, and they do. As she and the two women who live with her become older, the writing becomes more melancholy to suit their worsening situation. But Angel never does change.
I loved the first third of "Transcription". I enjoyed the author's trick of occasionally placing the main character's thoughts in brackets. In one conversation Juliet says "I'm only eighteen" and when the reply is "but you seem older" we get (Did that make her more or less attractive to him). Unfortunately, this technique does become in a little tiresome in it's repetition.
Whilst Kate Atkinson is one of my favourite authors, and her brilliant modern prose is still there, her feel for a story seems to be on the wain. Whilst the critics raved about her previous prize winning novel "A God in Ruins", for the first time I was less than enthusiastic. And my feelings about this book were the same. Ever since the successful adaptation of her Jackson Brodie novels for television, she seems to have an eye on what would make a good film. This distraction may be the reason these two books are not her best. But as I said in my review of "A God in Ruins", any book by this writer is better than most.
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