- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday (Mar 9 1995)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385405952
- ISBN-13: 978-0385405959
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15 x 3.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 621 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #310,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
"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.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
The narrator's insistent voice and breezy delivery animates this enchanting first novel by a British writer who won one of the 1993 Ian St. James Awards for short stories. Ruby Lennox is a quirky, complex character who relates the events of her life and those of her dysfunctional family with equal parts humor, fervor and candor-starting with her moment of conception in York, England, in 1959: "I exist!" Ruby then describes the family she is to join. Her parents own a pet shop; her mother, Bunty, bitterly rues having married her philandering husband, George, and daydreams about what her life might have been. Ruby has two older sisters, willful Gillian and melancholy Patricia. Through its ambitious structure, the novel also charts five generations and more than a century of Ruby's family history, as reported in "footnotes" that follow relevant chapters. (For example, a passage about a pink glass button reveals the story of its original owner, Ruby's great-grandmother Alice, who will abandon her young family and run off with a French magician.) Ruby's richly imagined account includes both the details of daily life and the several tragic events that punctuate the family's mundane existence. Though the "footnote" entries are not quite as gripping as those rendered in Ruby's richly vernacular, energetic recitation, Atkinson's ebullient narrative style captures the troubled Lennox family with wit and poignant accuracy.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
not for me,
By
This review is from: 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 followedThis 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.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The brilliant story of a family unhinged,
By
This review is from: Behind the Scenes at the Museum: A Novel (Paperback)
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.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Worthy Addition to the Empire of Chick Literature.,
By Nobody! (The Infinite Beyond) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Behind the Scenes at the Museum: A Novel (Paperback)
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.
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