Rec. #282: Emotionally Weird

What: In honor of Kate Atkinson's new book being released in the States tomorrow (!!!), here's a look back at her third novel. On an island off the coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother, Nora, tell each other stories. Effie's stories are about her life at university. Nora's stories are about the past. Neither one is completely sure how much of any of it is true.

Comparable to: Emotionally Weird is an odd comedic riff that has drawn comparisons to Finnegans Wake, Alice in Wonderland, and The Tempest. Reviewers have pointed to Thomas Pynchon, Abbott and Costello, Jorge Luis Borges, and John Irving as "clear influences." 

I'll also toss in If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, for Atkinson's fake-out narrative beginnings. (See below: Three beginnings, three sets of opening lines.)

Opening lines ("The Hand of Fate--first draft"): "Inspector Jack Gannet drove into Saltsea-on-Sea along the coast road. Today's sun (not that he believed it to be a new one every day) was already climbing merrily in the sky."

Opening lines ("Blood and Bone"): "My mother is a virgin. (Trust me.)"

Opening lines ("Chez Bob"): "A Monday morning and my dreams were interrupted at some unearthly hour by the doorbell ringing with a shrill urgency that implied death, tragedy, or a sudden, unexpected inheritance. It was none of those things (not yet anyway). It was Terri."

You might not like it if: "Ugh," you say. "Not narrative playfulness, please. Ugh."

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able.

Connections to previous Wreckage: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler was Rec. #261.

In order of initial publication, Kate Atkinson's other novels include Human Croquet (Rec. #137), Case Histories (Rec. #3), One Good Turn (Rec. #69), When Will There Be Good News? (Rec. #192), and Started Early, Took My Dog (Rec. #270).