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From Amazon
Human Croquet is a game in which some people act as hoops while others propel a blindfolded "ball" around the course. Though the game is never actually played in Kate Atkinson's remarkable novel, Human Croquet, the parallels between plot and pastime are undeniable. Atkinson, winner of the 1995 Whitbread Award in Britain, tells the story of Isobel Fairfax and her older brother, Charles. The children's parents vanished when they were young, leaving them to the care of their grandmother, now dead, and their Aunt Vinny. Recently their father has returned with "the Debbie-wife" in tow, and they all live in Arden, the family's ancestral home built on the foundations of the original manor house that burned to the ground in 1605. According to family legend, the first Fairfax took a wife who mysteriously disappeared one day, leaving in her wake a curse on the Fairfax name. More than 300 years later, Fairfax descendants are still struggling with this painful legacy.
Atkinson's novel is obviously not rooted in dull reality. Narrator Isobel has an uncanny knowledge of past and future events; Charles is obsessed with the concept of parallel universes and time travel; and a faery curse hangs over everybody. Fortunately, Kate Atkinson is a masterful writer who manages to keep her world of wonders in check. Human Croquet is no ordinary novel, and readers who venture into the Fairfax universe are in for a magical ride. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This ambitious and unusual novel concerns the nature of time, memory, and, most poignantly, identity. Young Isobel and her brother, Charles, are abandoned by their parents to the loveless care of a sour aunt, stern grandmother, and evil schoolmaster. They spend seven years yearning for the truth about their parents' disappearance and for their mother's return. It is their father, however, who returns?with a new young wife. The home of the protagonists is built on a site where, in the late 16th century, parallel events took place, and the novel warps and wends from past to present to future. British author Atkinson (Behind the Scenes at the Museum, St. Martin's, 1995) here focuses on Isobel's 16th year in 1960. Dopplegangers abound; people long-dead manifest themselves to the living. As the fantastic and the mundane combine almost seamlessly, incest, puppy love, and dysfunctional families mix to darkly comic effect. For most fiction collections; get Atkinson's first book, too.?Judith Kicinski, Sarah Lawrence Coll. Lib., Bronxville, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
CALL ME ISOBEL. (IT'S MY NAME.) Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
CALL ME ISOBEL. (IT'S MY NAME.) Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An audacious tour de force!,
By
This review is from: Human Croquet: A Novel (Paperback)
Although Shakespeare's play is never referenced, the symbolism of the Forest of Arden in As You Like It (where identity is a game and relationships are as mutable as time) is clear in this witty, wise, confusing, magically realistic novel that reminds one of Mervin Peake's Gormenghast trilogy and of Jane Eyre simultaneously. This is without a doubt one of the best books I've read this year, for the story, the characters, and Atkinson's marvelously fluid writing style. If I sound like I'm trying to write a literary assessment of the book, it's because it extends into so many areas and dimensions, successfully and in an entertaining way.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A terrific writer with a tragic flaw,
By A Customer
This review is from: Human Croquet: A Novel (Paperback)
As in Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson offers the reader brilliant and beautiful, wonderful writing with a few characters that are a bit too one-dimensional. I thought as I read this novel that it raised fascinating questions about the nature of time itself; unfortunately, I was wrong. As in Behind the Scenes, in this otherwise excellent book, Kate Atkins goes for a cheap B-movie "surprise" ending, an ending I am amazed any editor wouldn't insist on her rewriting. It's a shame that this gifted writer can't end her novels better. I loved both books until the last few chapters.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
a modern Wonderland,
By sara miller (South Dakota, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Human Croquet (Hardcover)
Human Croquet is a great summer vacation read. The story is a contemporary Alice in Wonderland, where nonsense reigns and the only rule is that rules don't apply. Highly entertaining.
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