Behind the Scenes at the Museum: A Novel
by Kate Atkinson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kate AtkinsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-01
ISBN: 0312150601
Number of pages: 332
Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of Behind the Scenes at the Museum: A Novel
Book Review: Haunting hat trick - surreal and yet real; hyper tragic yet heartwarming
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a weird and wonderful and amazingly talented bit of writing. I'm not surprised to see the controversy in the reviews here on Amazon. Behind the Scenes at the Museum is a difficult story emotionally - and uses some extremely unconventional tropes and techniques that can be hard to swallow. But it is a brilliant depiction of family dynamics, English culture, and the weird twisted nature of love.
The first hard to swallow trope is the omniscient fetus. Fetal Ruby Lennox has complete awareness of her mother's thoughts and emotions and full vision of the world around her mother - not to mention an excellent grasp of the English language (and even a good background in modernist literature - Ibsen and Strindberg are specifically cited by the fetus (!)) It's tough to get behind this - but I chose to suspend my issues and go with it. Fortunately that part ends very soon.
The second tough to follow aspect is the footnotes section that follows each chapter - really a whole separate chapter that takes place in a different time and generation - but relates thematically in often cryptic way. This weaving back and forth among the generations gives the novel a meandering feel - and takes some of the wind out of the sails of the narrative flow - but something is also gained. By braiding the different narratives across time, it adds to the emotional impact when they come together.
My third big issue with this book is that the coincidences of long lost family members showing up as unrelated characters takes on a bit of a ridiculous quality in the final moments of the book. Atkinson uses lost family members to good effect earlier. She manages to throw in one more at the end who shows up (unknown to any of the characters - but known to the reader) as a nurse at a final deathbed scene and I just felt it was too much. If I were the editor I would have recommended cutting that one.
If you look past the distracting mannerisms of these issues you are rewarded with a brilliant representation of history and family dynamics. Poverty, war, love, abuse, all impact the lives of - particularly - the wives and daughters of this family and produce some thoroughly believable and familiar characters. The emotionally distracted, sometimes adulterous, bad mother is pretty familiar to a lot of people in life. I have never met this character better portrayed than Bunty is here. The dynamics amongst sisters is also spot on. Not since Stephen King have I admired realism in kid dialog so much.
Even better is the miraculous way the narrative braids and interrelates across generations. Atkinson manages to complicate the narrative every time it seems wrapped up a in a bow. A couple of these complications come across as shocking haunting revelations. Atkinson's vision is brilliant and stays with you long after you finish this book. That's my bottom line for a good novel. The central theme is trauma and then recovery (and sometimes redemption). Some have complained there's too much tragedy in this book. They should read some English history. The last hundred years of European history is soaked in blood. Sure it hurts to get to know characters who go through the horrors of the first and second world wars. I'm sure there are plenty of families with body counts similar to the Lennox's across the generations. It's pretty silly to argue historical validity in a novel that's basically magical realist. There's a lot of death and emotional trauma in this book. How the surviving carry on - sometimes by recovering and sometimes by bearing emotional scars - is the central theme of this book and it had a lot to teach me. Some have complained about the neutral, almost uncaring tone of the narrative when presenting the violent scenes. I have to admit I loved this tone. It makes the tragedy much easier to take - and it also serves the narrative. Detachment and repression are basic human survival mechanisms to trauma. The general thrust is ultimately redemptive, however - and this book accentuates the positive, particularly in the end.
Ultimately, while I acknowledge some flaws, I conclude that this novel breaks new ground and creates a new style. It's a towering achievement and really great read. Normally I'd consider the flaws and give such a book 4 stars - but I feel this is really 4.5 stars and deserves the 5th to counter the low rating by those that didn't get it.
Summary of Behind the Scenes at the Museum: A Novel
National Bestseller
Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year
Kate Atkinson's dazzling debut novel is a deeply moving story of family heartbreak and happiness.
Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.
Kate Atkinson's dazzling debut novel is a deeply moving story of family heartbreak and happiness.
Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.
"I exist!" exclaims Ruby Lennox upon her conception in 1951, setting the tone for this humorous and poignant first novel in which Ruby at once celebrates and mercilessly skewers her middle-class English family. Peppered with tales of flawed family traits passed on from previous generations, Ruby's narrative examines the lives in her disjointed clan, which revolve around the family pet shop. But beneath the antics of her philandering father, her intensely irritable mother, her overly emotional sisters, and a gaggle of eccentric relatives are darker secrets--including an odd "feeling of something long forgotten"--that will haunt Ruby for the rest of her life. Kate Atkinson earned a Whitbread Prize in 1995 for this fine first effort.
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