Behind the Scenes at the Museum: A Novel [Paperback]

Ruby Lennox narrates her own life story from the moment of conception. She lives with her family above their pet store in York in the 50's. She reminisces about endless housework, weddings and funerals, and reveals long hidden family secrets. The narration is accompanied by many threads (footnotes) that run through four generations (great-grandmother, grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins) and their struggles through the 19th century and the two World Wars that followed

This novel is extremely complex, very multi layered; you go back and forth through the years. You can see a character dying in one chapter only to reappear in the next one; it tends to be confusing at times. This book left me with a strange feeling and it really didn't suit my type of reading. On this I prefer leaving the readers to their individual preferences.

In this book, the fictional Ruby Lennox reflects on her childhood and her family - her bizarre parents and strange, self-absorbed sisters, and ofcourse the small (and large) events that punctuate their lives. I found this dysfunctional family, who didn't seem to want to be a family (but were forced to anyway), really fascinating.

Reading this book, it isn't until the end that you realise what Ruby finally realises: that the individuals in families don't have to get along, they don't have to like eachother, they don't even have to take the same paths in life. But they will always have shared experiences (even if they had no choice in the matter), and somehow this is an indelible bond.

The anecdotes in the book are relayed with genuine feeling - as another reader has said, "tragi-comical" in their subject matter. The characters are brilliantly portrayed - amusing, quirky, selfish people who somehow still manage to have a bond with eachother (though they scarcely realise it). And the reflection on the meaning of family is subtle, not sickening and obvious.

Put simply, this is a moving, and yet highly entertaining book. I would recommend it to anyone that wants more from fiction than a fast-paced, light read.

Kate Atkinson's first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, is a book which every piece of "chick literature" should be written like. The novel is most likely intended for women, but dissimilar from other girlish tinsel, it is not inaccessible to men. Most female writers of the present seem to be under the impression that it is their duty, as women, to write about nothing more than shopping and romance--as if this were the sort of superficiality that were needed in literature and our culture--like it were scarce or something. Atkinson, however--and as the novel illustrates--is in touch with her femininity but doesn't often use it as a steel shield to hide behind or use it as an excuse to be silly. The book description [back cover, yes?] explains the overall idea of the novel better and more concisely than I can, so here it is: "Ruby Lennox begins narrating her own life at the moment of her conception, and from there takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of a girl determined to learn more about her family and the secrets it keeps." Behind the Scenes at the Museum is quite enjoyable--it is well written, entertaining, emotional and "darkly comic," [to quote The Boston Globe's review], and based on a concept that is not extraordinarily original, but is executed in an interesting and creative enough way. The characters--stereotypical as they may be [the aloof father, the frazzled mother, the sexually-liberated teenage daughter, and a young girl who cannot be understood] are portrayed well and in far more gratifying ways than one would expect--that is, Atkinson is quite skilled at broaching everyday situations and familiar standards in fresh and heartening styles. The novel doesn't offer many insights into society or innovative character analyses, but that can be forgiven since it is composed well and is a pleasurable read. The writer, remarkably, never loses awareness of her story--that is, when the reader starts to become unresponsive or bored with a storyline, Atkinson introduces new aspects and surprises in the story promptly. Overall, Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum is a comforting novel--a book to be read when lonely and in which one can easily immerse oneself.