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Book: Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

Some laugh out loud paragraphs about characters. For that, I read the book. Some folks call this a literary mystery novel. Is that code for a bad mystery? Because I guessed the main mystery about 1/3 of the way in. She pulls a decent "trick" by layering in a number of mysteries, so in fact, you are thinking to yourself while you get these sparse clues - how will this tie together? It's an interesting technique. The jumping around POVs and time was often off putting. She would occasionally end chapters on what I'd call - pre-climaxes - and withhold information that would inspire future action. So we'd get future actions with a gap in understanding the motivation or knowledge of the characters. Personally, I found this quite annoying. The time jumps backwards and forwards were often pointless and I felt done only as an attempt to create suspense when the narrative itself could not provide tension.

Why people like these books, I imagine, is they capture a certain vibe. Part of a broad category of what I'd call "female honesty" stories which purport to portray what is "really feels like" to be female. I find this code for - girls being shitty and finding complex ways to justify it. I haven't seen Babygirl, but it seems like an entry in this genre as well. My wife described the story and I said, if the genders were reversed, the man would be considered a monster. But when the women does it, it's considered "complex."

In any case, a certain type of female reader (lets just be clear here - liberal) seems to enjoy women who bash on motherhood, how much they hate children - including their own, how men are terrible and often worthy of murder, etc. The bad men in the story are indeed monsters - unexplored, uninteresting, monsters whereas the female monsters are complex, mysterious, and to be empathized with. I imagine this element is what readers enjoy - as a way vicariously to indulge their own "bad sides."

Not that there's anything wrong with it!

But all that said, I never hear anyone talk about the TV show Girls anymore and that was a pioneer in this genre.