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Emotionally Weird

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About this listen

On a peat and heather island off the west coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother Nora take refuge in the large decaying house of their ancestors and tell each other stories.

Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, like who her father was - variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie.

Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, the land of cakes and William Wallace, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and the Germans (more real than the Luxemburgers).But strange things are happening.

Why is Effie being followed? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog?

©2000 Kate Atkinson (P)2015 Random House Audiobooks Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Funny Witty
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I adore Kate Atkinson's writing but this was just a little too emotionally weird. At times extremely funny but in the end I found it hard to follow the plot

Funny, imaginative but not my favourite

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Unfortunately the reader did not use enough difference in the voice to make clear who all the different characters and stories were. The constant Scots accent hardly varied. Pity

Intriguing story.

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This is the third Kate Atkinson book I’ve read and is not my favourite story, but it is as fantastically written as the others.

She writes with such detail and humour, and I’m never sure which direction the book will go in, that I can’t stop listening/reading.

I absolutely recommend reading this, but suggest it not be your introduction to Atkinson.

A Weird Read!

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I was at uni in the late 70s, a bit after this book is set, but the description of life as a student in those days, albeit on the wackier side of bohemian, was absolutely true to my experience. The characters were familiar and the situations they found themselves in were entirely feasible, although ridiculously unlikely! The way the stories were interwoven was brilliant, but perhaps rather confusing at the beginning. I love this book and will have to listen to it again to get every ounce of nuance that I may have missed the first time.

A glorious interweaving of three (or more) tales, wonderful humour, and naked wickedness.

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Have enthusiastically read many Kate Atkinson’s books recently, but I found this one tedious. The descriptions of student life in Dundee were probably accurate, but almost every character was pathetic - except for Mrs Macbeth and her pal. I think I need a break from Ms Atkinson.

So disappointed

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