Family Jewels

'Behind the Scenes at the Museum'
By: Kate Atkinson


Format: Paperback
Published: Picador; 1995
Pages: 332


Synopsis: Ruby Lennox begins narrating her own life at the moment of her conception and from there takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of a girl determined to learn more about her family and the secrets it keeps. Kate Atkinson's dazzling first novel, named the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year in England, is a darkly comic, deeply moving story of family heartbreak and happiness. 


My Take: Atkinson is another one of those authors that I told myself I wanted to read in 2010. Well 2010, as we all know, is quickly slipping out of our grasps so I needed to get to it. I had a lot of options to choose from. I think Atkinson is probably most famous for her 'Case Histories' series but I didn't know if it would be good for me to start with an author by reading the first of her books that start a series because it might leave things undone if I didn't like them. One novel this way was tidy. So I started with her first book, which was an award winning one at that and wow she started off her career with a bang!


It's hard for me to put into words everything that even happened in this novel. Believe me, it got me out of my reading malaise although it did take me awhile to get through the book but I was OK with the slow, leisurely pace of this read. I think it deserved it. The thing is, Ruby our narrator, doesn't just take us through her entire life which starts at conception in the early 1950s in England, but through her entire family's history from grandparents, aunts and uncles and great grandparents, etc. so you really get a picture of why everyone is the way they are. And how are they might you ask? Well, kind of mean to each other but it's surprisingly funny. I don't know how Atkinson pulled it off. I think it's that British humor which you either like or don't but my goodness there were some dark scenes in this book and a lot of death because we went through two World Wars and mother's left their children and children left their mother's and people just plain got fed up with their lives but, yet their was a tinge of humor to it all. I swear, you have to read it to believe it.


There are so many characters in this book, a family tree at the beginning would have been helpful because Ruby's great grandma has a brood of children and they all have their children and so goes how people become who they are. It's probably not far from the truth yet nothing we can ever really know about our own ancestors. The interesting thing is, what we believe to be the truth at the beginning of the book is not in fact the truth at the end of the book. 


Atkinson also used an interesting method for her flashbacks. It would be in 'present day' or whenever Ruby was telling her story and she would see something that her mother held dear or an expression they all shared and there would be a footnote attached to it. The next chapter would be that footnote and would go into detail with a relative from way back when where that item originated or who first made that facial expression to see why we do what we do. And I guess that's why the book is called 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' because they never actually go to a museum but Ruby's family are the artifacts and she is seeing rare glimpses of them, and therefore we are as a result, that nobody else would get to. I know it's confusing to explain but it really is a great read and I would highly recommend it!


Cover Lust: At first I honestly thought this cover was kind of boring. Not one to grab you off the shelves. There are a couple of different versions of covers out there and looking around none of them really grabbed me but as I was reading this one I got it. I understood the genius of the cover. As you look at it there is a ghost of a girl there and that's probably Ruby who is hovering behind the scenes of everything looking into their lives. It totally makes sense. Granted before you've read it, you wouldn't know that but I like it after the fact!


(I purchased this book)