book reviews , different studio guests each week. Join us every Thursday between 12 and 1pm on Radio Scilly 107.9fm or log on to radioscilly.com.

Missed any programmes? See below for list of guests, books and other details discussed.

Thursday 21 May 2009

Kate Atkinson - ‘When Will There Be Good News?’

Review by Peter Lawrence 21st May '09.
Kate Atkinson burst onto the scene in the mid 1990s with a superb and adventurous novel ‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum’, which won universal praise and the Whitbread Book of the Year award in 1995. In 2004 she turned her hand to detective fiction with the publication of ‘Case Histories’. Next came the amazing ‘One Good Turn’, set at a very eventful Edinburgh Festival, and now we have the latest offering in the shape of ‘When Will There Be Good News?’
This is, however, no ordinary detective fiction. The main character, running through all three books is Jackson Brodie, a dysfunctional and dishevelled ex-cop, a bit like Rebus without the booze, who seems to continually run into the most bizarre and difficult crimes. In the first two books the excitement was palpable. I have never had much time for the expression ‘unputdownable’, but it was certainly true of those books.
‘When Will There Be Good News?’ is a good and well written book. Or at least it would be if it had been written by an average writer. But Kate Atkinson is not an average writer. She is not even, usually, a good writer. She is excellent when on her best form. Alas, it is not third time lucky for ex-detective Brodie.
Grisly coincidences almost stumble over each other in their rush to make it on to the page, and I was early on left with the feeling that I was enjoying the flow of the words but not the flow of the story. This is just not real life, and simply not believable. The novel starts with an horrific crime witnessed by a young girl, who grows up to be one of the main protagonists of the novel. She is a GP, and her ne’er-do-well husband is a shifty and sinister character of whom we are encouraged to think nothing but bad. Her childminder and general all-round help, sixteen year old Reggie (short for Regina) is, however, a living saint. She too has been through a few minor tragedies like the gruesome death of her mother, the loss of her greatest friend, first to fundamentalist Christianity and then to death, having her flat, in which she lives alone despite being a vulnerable 16 year old, turned over, mistakenly as it happens, by two of her brother’s unfortunate friends; and a whole catalogue of other woes and agonies that would normally fill more than a lifetime for even the most unfortunate among us.
As I have indicated already, Kate Atkinson is a writer of consummate skill, whose new books are eagerly anticipated by thousands, including me. She has tried, I think, in this book to pile up one unfortunate coincidence upon another to build atmosphere and drama. The title of the book suggests this might be intentionally tongue in cheek and ironic, poking fun at the lunacy of many detective stories. This may be the case, but it just didn’t work for me. It goes too far. I found myself waiting for the next absurd disaster and often laughing at the unlikely and contrived nature of it. If that is what Atkinson wanted, then she succeeds very well. At the same time, though, what could have been a powerful impact of slightly less drama more sensitively used, is lost.
I’m still glad I read this book. The quality of the writing and Atkinson’s skill with words makes the time invested well worthwhile. I do hope though, that her next book grips me as much for the quality of its plot as for the power of its language.

No comments: