A group blog for participants in the New York Times Notable Book Challenge to share their thoughts on the books they are reading.
Friday, November 30, 2007
One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson
One Good Turn is wonderful! From the very first sentence I was entranced by Atkinson's use of words and her terrific low-key sense of humor. I was surprised to find that the book is actually a mystery, but there is nothing genre-like about it, no standard investigation or even single investigator. I was further surprised to find that it makes use of characters first developed in another of Atkinson's books, again a genre technique. It doesn't matter as we learn what we need to know from this book alone.
The story begins with a "road rage" incident in Edinburgh involving a suspicious name-changing character and a beefy guy who wields a baseball bat. The incident draws together an interesting group of characters, but the story reads rather like strings spreading further and further apart, or perhaps more like a web built by a spider. Each chapter develops the story for one or two of the characters, and only near the end do the paths intersect, in a crazy, hilarious episode, rather like the punchline in a shaggy dog story.
The writing is superb. The insights into character are well-informed. The humor is delicious.
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1 comment:
My review was very similar. I'm anxious to see what happens with Jackson and the lady cop.
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