A Gem of a Novel (Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson)

Member Name: Mad_Wicca

Product:	Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson
Date:	06/09/01 (331 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A wonderfully written novel

Disadvantages: Characters lives are wrapped up too quick at the end

In 1995 York born author Kate Atkinsons first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread First Novel Award and Whitbread Book of the Year, while 1999 saw Waterstones choose it as one of the 99 greatest novels from the last 99 years. High praise indeed from an industry which is becoming harder for new talent to break into. So just what is it, contained within these 382 pages, that caught the imagination and hearts of these literary stalwarts?

Behind the Scenes at the Museum portrays the life of Ruby Lennox, from her grudging conception in 1951, and early life in the city of York, to the solitude she finds on the Shetland Islands in her later years. Along the way we meet Ruby’s middle-class family, past and present, and share with them all their joys, heartaches and wrath at the way their lives have not turned out as they had expected.

The first chapter of the novel is totally original, and an utter delight to read, as it captures your imagination at once. ‘I exist!’ exclaims Ruby, as her drunken father George rolls off the feigning sleep form of her mother Bunty. From the moment of conception, cocooned inside her mother, we are privy to Ruby’s interpretation of Bunty’s innermost thoughts on life above the pet shop, which the family run, and her feelings towards her husband and their two daughters.

With the womb ensconced Ruby we are introduced to her elder sisters, five-year-old Patricia, brooding and friendless, and three-year-old precocious and pushy Gillian. Already the cracks are beginning to appear in her parent’s marriage, George a womanising boozer and irritable Bunty resentful of what she has given up for the daily drudgery that is now her life. By the time Ruby makes her entrance into the world she’s beginning to wonder if she has been born into the wrong family!

What follows is the story of Ruby and her dysfunctional family as they try to get through all the devas
tating incidents life throws at them. However, interspersed with the Lennox family tale, we are taken back in time to learn of the early lives of Ruby’s mother Bunty, maternal grandmother Nell, and maternal great-grandmother Alice. The moving, and sometimes complex, portrayals of these three generations of women is inter woven beautifully with Ruby’s own life, going a long way to explain why her family turned out the way they have.

All three of Ruby’s ancestors are linked together by the choices they made in their lives, whether right or wrong, which effected the generations to come. They all share the same hatred of cooking, cleaning, pregnancy and caring for a growing family, yet Bunty’s domestic drudgery is far removed from the hard toil suffered by Alice. For Bunty the days are empty, filled only by a strict schedule of chores that she feels martyred to; for Alice these chores are what keep her children from starving, or freezing to death. But through all of this the lives of these women are cemented together by one tragedy after another, which culminates in a dark family secret that tears Ruby’s life apart.

There are plenty of plot twists throughout this novel, some you can workout just before you get to them, others hit you with full force, leaving you breathless at Atkinsons expert handling of the plot, which keeps them hidden from you for so long. The story takes you from late 19th Century rural life, through both the First and Second World Wars, dipping into the excitement of the Festival of Britain and the Queen’s Coronation in the 1950’s, Beatle mania during the ‘60’s, the flares and sideburns of the ‘70’s, finally coming to an end in the early 1990’s.

Along the way we meet a host of eccentric and flawed relatives, which add to the overall impression of the families dishevelled lives. Chapter three, when the family converge on the Lennox’s flat to cel
ebrate the Queens Coronation, is superbly executed, reminding me of many of my own family functions, and a few relatives too! Some of the most memorable characters are introduced in this chapter, such as constantly tap-dancing cousin Lucy-Vida, her ‘common’ mother Auntie Eliza, camp cousin Adrian, the frighteningly creepy twins Daisy and Rose and strange Uncle Ted.

Behind The Scenes at the Museum will take you on an epic journey through love, betrayal, secrecy, implied incest, fires, death, heroism, sibling rivalry, adopted babies, ghosts, breakdowns and suicide attempts. But you will be carried along every step of the way by the witty humour, satire and strong bonds that keep this unforgettable family together. For a first novel it is simply astounding, the sort of book that, once I’d finished, made me think, ‘I wish I’d written that.’ Its almost poetic prose will stay in your mind long after you have turned the final page, and the characters and stories will have you thinking of them for weeks to come.

If I had one criticism of the book it’s that Atkinson ‘sews up’ everyone’s life, and what happened to them after the shocking truth was revealed, in the last thirty pages of the novel. It all seems a bit quick, but then the plot of the story is explaining how and why the ‘shocking truth’ occurred, once that truth is out the story is effectively told. It just feels as if Atkinson has quickly tied up all the loose ends now the main story is done. On saying that, I would still urge anyone to read this poignant, beautifully written story of a young girls struggle, and eventual growth, through family life and tragedy.

When I first read Behind the Scenes at the Museum my father was looking into our own family tree. Although not filled with quite so many dark secrets as Ruby’s, a few things were revealed that surprised us. After reading this book I began to see my own
ancestors in a different way. I realised that they were no longer just names on paper, that they did have hopes, dreams and disappointments of their own; they were real people, with real lives. But more importantly I saw how who they were and what they did in life made me the person I am today. It made me consider what it means to hold the title of mother, daughter, sister, cousin, aunt, and still retain what it is to be *you*.

Towards the end of the book, when all has been revealed, an older, wiser Ruby says: "I have been to the world's end and back and now I know what I would put in my bottom drawer. I would put my sisters." After reading Behind the Scenes at the Museum I think I would too.

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