Rating: 
Summary: If you like a well told story, this is the book for you
Review: This book succeeded for me on two levels. I read because I enjoy a good story and this book has several. It has stories within stories within stories. And I found that to be a fun concept. It is sort of like the old play within a play carried to extremes. I kept turning the pages to see how it would all turn out, and how the author was going to bring everything together. I enjoyed the multiple plots and the author's use of language. I found the descriptive narrative wonderful. It also was a very funny picture of university life in the early seventies. The characters resonated for me - I think I met a version of most of them during my years at university. And I certainly attended the same philosophy classes. I kept assocciating the various characters with people I knew. It was great fun. The first few pages are a bit confusing, but it is worth carrying on. It was a fun book.
Rating: 
Summary: Emotionally Wierd - Kate Atkinson
Review: This book was a total load of rubbish. I have started to read it twice but after eventually arriving at page 103, I have had to put the book down as the story does not seem to be going anywhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Clever but weird
Review: This is a REALLY strange book...undoubtedly very clever but strange. A mother and daughter are temporarily trapped by bad weather on a remote island off the Scottish coast and, to fill in the time, decide to tell stories of their lives. At this stage I thought that they were recounting real happenings about real people but, as time went on, I was no longer sure. Some of the characters are just too flaky to be convincing and on face value appear to be the grubbiest people on earth and with such bad diets that it's a wonder that they're not all suffering from scurvy! I also do like to feel an empathy with some of the characters in any book and in this, the only one I liked was a slightly batty old professor at the university where the daughter was half heartedly studying for a degree. I'll try another of M/s Atkinsons' books to see if we're at all on the same wave length...doubtful!
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, offbeat, thought-provoking
Review: To say this is a book in which on a deserted Scottish island Effie and her mother tell stories about their lives is to give a completely wrong impression of this book... it's more like Italo Calvino in the way it plays with a bunch of different narratives. Most of the book is 20-year old Effie's story.. it's 1972, and she's an unmotivated student at the University of Dundee. Her chapters, "Chez Bob" (Bob is her Star Trek-obsessed boyfriend she's too lethargic to leave) are hilarious... the descriptions of her friends and the nonsensical situations and conversations will be familiar to anyone who's ever been to college, anywhere. The excerpts from tutorials (we'd call them seminars" she half-heartedly participates on are exact and funny. They also provide an excuse to show excerpts from the mystery novel she's writing, the fantasy a friend is writing and a mysterious novel that seems to have supernatural powers taht one of the professors is working on. Every time we get to an excerpt, the font changes, which is a clear and delightful device For all that the book plays with reality, it still remains clear and not mystified and annoying. Every now and then we return to the remote Scottish island (the font is more stark there, too) and we get little glimpses of Nora's story as Effie tries to get the story of her birth... Nora is a Virgin and as the book goes on we realize Nora is not her mother... also in Effie's story she is being followed by a mysterious woman... all of these threads are tied together brilliantly by the end in a conclusion that is logical and satisfying. We also get a brief epilogue set in 1999, largely excerpts from the now-published writings of Effie and her friends, which is short and funny. I laughed out loud at the description of one of the college parties. Atkinson has a brilliant ear for dialogue and her character descriptions are sharp and clear. I feel as if I've *been* to Dundee in 1972! (The student demonstrations and their escalations, and a feminist meeting attended by a doddering, gallant male professor, are particularly wonderful). Don't be put off by some of the lukewarm reviews here-- this is one of the more original books I've read in a while!
Rating:
Summary: Emotionally manipulative
Review: When this book came out in the UK in May I was so excited, I even bought it in hardback. Kate Atkinson is that rare writer - one who knows as much about writing as how to write, and she shows this to advantage in an extremely clever book. She veers on the self-indulgent with her myriad storylines interweaving in and out of this book, but her charm and great good humour shine throughout; and I greatly regretted that we did not see more of her lead character's gloriously campy and wickedly parody-like detective novel. The word games and language play which characterise Atkinson are not so subtle as they were in "Human Croquet" (which still remains her best novel) but they still provide a source of much enjoyment and delight; amusing us as much as they entertain the brain and make the reader think. She is one of our greatest modern writers, and even if Emotionally Weird is not as good as her last two books (Human Croquet, and Behind The Scenes at the Museum, which latter is much praised by people and described as "The perfect novel") , and is, undeniably, flawed in some ways - The symbolism and development of Atkinson's storyline, with the private eye and the yellow dog, is not as clear cut as one would wish for. However - and this is the truly magical thing - with an Atkinson novel, you can re-read it and everything suddenly becomes different. Words dropped here and there become surprisingly important, dialogue leaps into focus, things you ignored suddenly force themselves into your consciousness a second time around. The book grips the brain as much as it thrills and mystifies, entertains and satisfies. Not only is it extremely funny, extremely baffling, and extremely intelligent, but it is extreme in its own right. The plot lays itself open to ridicule, but so strong is Atkinson's power and skill that we never think "Goodness, what a daft plot!". The portraits of the characters are marvellously precise, true to life and bitingly witty. Thankyou, Kate, for understanding that characters are very important in a novel. A mediocre plot can be pulled off with strong characters, a faintly weird plot is a success. Kate, you may not have quite parallelled the superlative wealth of your second book, but you're still a damn good authoress. And the exciting thing is - there is obviously room for improvement! This is not a bad thing when someone writes as well as she does. What I am saying to you is that Kate Atkinson will go on to write even better - though it hardly seems possible - than she does now. Her style will develop, and when she is at her most matured, she will be one of the literary greats of her day. I heartily recommend the purchase of this book, but would suggest strongly that you buy her other books as well, and start with Human Croquet - which is more accessible and immediately understandable. Having read that, you can then embark upon this book - and you will be all the better for it. I promise you.
Rating: 
Summary: Just plain weird
Review: While witty and charming, this book still manages to be a disappointment. In her last two books, eventually, all the twisting plots came together and made sense. In this novel, they did not. Only because I chose to use this book for a project I was doing did I half-heartedly trudge through this book of nonsense. What happened to the yellow dog? What happened to Ferdinand? When I chose this book I was confident that it was not a sci-fi. Then why did so many supernatural things seem to happen? Now I'm stuck doing a report worth 15% of my grade on a book that does not make sense and basically, has no continuing plot. This book has certainly discuraged me from picking up another of Atikinson's novels.
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