This review has been difficult to write because this book was good but I didn’t like it. I’m much better when I definitely love or definitely hate something! And this was just…frustrating for me.
The story is set over about a week’s time in 1926 London, following a pair of girls who have runaway from York to become stars and inevitably get swallowed in the nightclub scene. And also the ex-field nurse turned librarian who goes to find them. And also the notorious nightclub owner. And also her five children. And also the police officer charged with cleaning up the corrupt Bow Street Station. And also every freaking person they stumble across on the way. It’s A LOT!
And that is my main issue with the book, it’s just too much. It felt like it took forever for the plot to happen but at the same time there were so many things happening. There is sexual assault and botched illegal abortions and the dope scene and dead girls and latent homosexuality and PTSD and The War and police corruption and a love triangle and murder and prostitution and stolen jewels!
There were so many threads, and while I was impressed with Atkinson’s ability to keep them all going and knitted neatly together in the end, I never felt like it was worth all the damn work. The conclusions were abrupt and unsatisfying for me.
It was also not nearly enough. She moves perspective between all of these characters, several of whom are incredibly naive and spend a lot of time describing the things they don’t understand, so it was difficult to really get a lock on anyone. I knew who each of the characters was, she did a great job at emotions and motivations and voice, I just never had enough time to develop any feeling one way or the other about them.
And that’s why I say it’s me. I just don’t think Kate Atkinson is an author I enjoy. I struggled so much with Life After Life. I tried Case Histories and couldn’t get into it. I’m an immersive reader, I want to be lost in a story, in a character, in a world. I was never able to escape into Shrines of Gaiety, but I can absolutely appreciate the work that went in to writing this and I understand why others would enjoy it. I found it chaotic and insubstantial and still well written and interesting – frustrating because I wanted to like but finishing felt like a chore. Not for me, but don’t let that stop you.
