Product Description

On a peat and heather island off the west coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother Nora take refuge in the large mouldering 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?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20980 in Books
• Published on: 2001
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Family history and identity are Kate Atkinson's twinned keynote themes. Behind the Scenes at the Museum (winner of the Whitbread Book of the year), had "The Family" at its centre, a sweep of charming, related genes who sauntered through the fin de siècle to the less glamorous 1992. Her second novel, Human Croquet starred the Fairfaxes, all missing mothers, perfumed with nicotine and danger, and strange aunts. Larkin may be right, your parents fuck you up but in Atkinson's novels you have to find out who they are before you can start laying blame.

On the surface, Emotionally Weird follows the trend. Effie and her mother Nora are staying in the decaying family home on a small island off the West coast of Scotland. To keep themselves amused they begin telling stories. Nora's are about their ancestors, in whose veins blood blue as "delphiniums and lupins" flows, and the real identity of Effie's father and mother. Nora's language is like her "sea-change eyes", full of poetry and strange beauty. Effie's tales of life at the University of Dundee and her life with Star Trek obsessed Bob are more prosaic and funny: "I did so hope that Bob was a dress rehearsal, a kind of mock relationship, like a mock exam, to prepare me for the real thing."

The novel becomes troublesome where it follows Effie to a creative writing course at the university. The class is run by Martha: who writes poetry "with impenetrable syntax about a life where nothing happened." The other characters in the novel are pre-occupied with the same need to find meaning through writing. Archetypal detective stories, sword and sorcery fantasy, doctor and nurse romantic scenarios, existential angst and liberal use of ellipses are given free reign. Whilst this self-conscious wordplay is fun for those who enjoy a more literary book, those who simply enjoy a good read may get lost in the jostle of competing language construction.

In this novel, confused paternity is only part of the struggle for identity, the words you use are also defining- you are what you write. Some readers will revel in the Shandy-esque shape of the experimental in this narrative, others may find it's a literary joke taken too far.--Eithne Farry.

The Times
'The lustre, energy and panache of her writing are as striking as ever...Funny, bold and memorable'

Time Out
'Beautifully written…brimming with quirky characters and original storytelling. Kate Atkinson has struck gold with this unique offering'

Customer Reviews

Reader teaser
In her latest book Kate Atkinson's teases the reader, backtracking and rewriting the plot, killing and resurrecting characters, indulging in word games and supplying her own ongoing critique. When a character says: 'this is absolute, gratuitous nonsense', Effie, the narrator, adds sententiously: 'And so it was.' Characters pick their own adverbs; cliche's come to life (a dog eats an essay); turns of phrase are coldly examined: 'Keep an eye out... Oh, what a horrible idea', and a doorbell cannot ring suddenly without raising the question 'how else?'

While Effie, a student at the University of Dundee, recounts her painfully recognisable tale of student life circa 1972, her mother Nora (who isn't her mother) recounts the tale of Effie's true provenance. The pair are sequestered on a tiny Scottish island, so isolated that they refer to a bigger island nearby as the mainland.Their tales are distinguished by different typefaces, a necessary device as Nora's comments often interrupt Effie's tale, contributing to the ongoing critique. In a creative writing class Effie (an omnipotent narrator) allows a student to read from his fantasy epic (printed in a Gothic font). Nora tells her to stop him as she is wasting words. Effie replies: 'There isn't a finite stock of them'. Nora asks: 'How do you know? You might suddenly just run out and then you won't be able to finish the - '

Among other typefaces - and stories - that make guest appearances are Effie's own contribution to the creative writing class (a seaside-based detective novel), a lecturer's Kafkaesque work and his wife's Mills and Boon prose. Effie's dozy boyfriend throws in the plots of Star Trek and Dr Who. The lecturer's novel is as indecipherable as the academic language he uses in his stifling tutorials, where nonetheless a crucial point is raised: 'second-order verisimilitude won't suffice any more when trying to form a transcendentally coherent view of the world.' Atkinson fans who were impressed by the 'second-order verisimilitude' of 'Behind the Scenes in the Museum' might lose patience with this book, though to my mind she has really taken off. Her linguistic and comic flair rise to greater heights in this Reductio ad Absurdum (an expression she uses as a chapter title).

For all the fun she has with words and typography (including a half-page black square to indicate where Effie closes her eyes), Kate Atkinson has not eschewed the rules of the conventional novel entirely. She asks in a chapter heading near the end 'Is Achieving a Transcendentally Coherent View of the World Still a Good Thing?' This does seem to be what she is at. The novel raises similar themes (of family and belonging) to her ealier works. Despite flights of magic realism, there is plenty of mundane realism - ice-gems and Number 6, which, one old lady says, she only smokes for the coupons. When Salt and Vinegar crisps are mentioned I even found myself worrying whether that flavour existed in 1972.

Maybe the biggest surprise in this overtly experimental novel is the way the ends are tied up so neatly and Kate Atkinson delivers, as if despite herself, a carefully constructed story.

Best Yet
This is the best offering from Kate Atkinson by far and if you've ever been a student or even just bored out of your mind in a hot stuffy room somewhere you'll love this. In this twisted tale Nora reveals Effie's true parentage (for Effie's mother Nora is in fact a virgin.) The characters in this book are vivid and laugh-out-loud funny and the details even more so. I recently read Emotionally Wierd for the third time and it gets better and better. However if you expect a big finish you may be disapointed but, as far as I'm concerned, the conclusion perfectly mirrors the atmosphere throughout. Some classic gems include the meaning of life, a baby called Proteus and the perfectly observed madness that is predicate logic. Enjoy!

You've been looking all wrong
This book, is every bit as good as both Human Croquet, and Behind the Scenes at the Museum. In my view Kate Atkinson has continued to write in her intruiging, dream-like, surreal style, and, like the prior two books, she has wriiten a masterful, and faintly sinister book.

I would hazard to say, the Emotionally weird is a more dificult book, using more complex language and a more interesting way of looking at plot. It's certainly not for anybody for whom Nick Hornby is hard reading.

Summing up, I would suggest that this book is very much worth reading, and is if anything more interesting than either of the previous books. In some ways we feel that it is more autobiographical than her previous work, although perhaps only in spirit. A fascinating, and beautiful read. If you are up to the 'challenge'.