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Jump to navigationJump to searchA God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson (view source)
Revision as of 08:51, 22 August 2020
, 08:51, 22 August 2020no edit summary
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Kate Atkinson has a talent possessed by remarkably few. Her writing is unashamedly literary but still emminently eminently readable. One of the best books I've read.
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|isbn=978-0385618700
|website=http://www.kateatkinson.co.uk/
|cover=Atkinson_God
|aznuk=0552776645
If you've read [[Life After Life by Kate Atkinson|Life After Life]] you might be thinking that this sounds a little familiar. Teddy was the adored younger brother of the heroine, Ursula and ''A God in Ruins'' stays (mostly) with one of Ursula's incarnations for this story. I usually do my best to avoid books which are sequels or 'companion pieces', as Kate Atkinson refers to this story, unless I've read and loved the earlier book, but I made an exception this time. Firstly, it was on the [[Costa Book Awards 2015|shortlist]] for the Costa Novel Award for 2015 and I couldn't believe that a book which didn't stand alone could reach that stage. I didn't have the opportunity to read ''Life After Life'' and I was intrigued to find out if the book really ''did'' work on its own. Secondly, I loved [[Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson|Behind the Scenes at the Museum]] and I knew that whatever else I might find, the writing would be stunning.
Not expecting to survive the war hadn't been devastating to Teddy. He had always been relentlessly unambitious, following his father's advice ''to just sort of paddle about in the middle''. Even when he survives he has no grand ambitions, wanting only to ''live a good quiet life''. This might make him sound boring, but he's anything but and my heart went out to him. Perhaps it's always the way of things that his daughter Viola should react against his values and lead anything but a good quiet life - and that her children should react against her. I sensed Atkinson's love for Teddy too: she seemed determined to celebrate his ordinary life, his sense of obligation and determination to do his duty. There's a self-restraint about Teddy which makes him blossom large in your mind, particularly when public opinion turned against those of bomber command who had risked (and frequently lost) their lives for their country.
I've come to regret (rather than condemn) what happened in our name during the war and along with it I've developed a mild aversion to novels ''about'' the war, so I was completely taken aback when a couple of set pieces about bombing missions were absolutely riveting. None of the pieces about the war repelled me as I expected, perhaps because I'd already invested a great deal of myself in the ''characters'', not least because I already knew what would happen to them after the war, which brings me to another literary device which I normally find annoying.
This is the point at which I normally thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag, but I bought the download myself!
If you haven't read [[Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson|Behind the Scenes at the Museum]] it really is worth chasing up a copy. You might also enjoy [[Crocodile on the Carousel by Sally Tissington]].
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