315. Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:  Clare Telleen

Author:   Kate Atkinson

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, Foreign

332 pages, published November 1, 1999

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

Behind the Scenes at the Museum is Kate Atkinson’s debut novel, a story of family heartbreak and happiness. Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.

Quotes 

“In the end, it is my belief, words are the only things that can construct a world that makes sense.”

 

“Patricia embraces me on the station platform. ‘The past is what you leave behind in life, Ruby,’ she says with the smile of a reincarnated lama. ‘Nonsense, Patricia,’ I tell her as I climb on board my train. ‘The past’s what you take with you.”

 

“Sometimes I would like to cry. I close my eyes. Why weren’t we designed so that we can close our ears as well? (Perhaps because we would never open them.) Is there some way that I could accelerate my evolution and develop earlids?”

 

“But I know nothing; my future is a wide-open vista, leading to an unknown country – The Rest Of My Life.”

 

 

 

“Slattern! What a wonderful new word. ‘Slattern,’ I murmur appreciatively to Patricia.

‘Yes, slattern,’ Bunty says firmly. ‘That’s what she is.’  ‘Not a slut like you then?’ Patricia says very quietly. Loud enough to be heard, but too quiet to be believed.”

 

 “shop-bought cakes are a sign of sluttish housewifery.” 

My Take

I picked up Behind the Scenes at the Museum after enjoying Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life and A God in Ruins.  It wasn’t as good as those efforts, but still offered interesting insights into the human condition.