Kate Atkinson is Good News for MLF
KATE Atkinson used to be what you might call a ‘literary novelist’. At a push, you might even have used that most dubious of terms ‘women’s writer’. But those days are long behind her since she developed the character of laconic private investigator Jackson Brodie, and became one of the UK’s best selling crime writers.
It’s an unquestionably brilliant piece of literature (yes she is still literary) that toys with the conventions of the crime genre but steers clear of any postmodern naval-gazing tomfoolerly. Instead Atkinson is concerned less with genre, or being ‘literary’, but with a 100-mile an hour story that makes her that most delightful of qualities; unputdownable.
Atkinson’s characters are juicily flawed and detailed, and her plots are unapologetically elaborate with more than a splash of contrivance, but then this is crime fiction, so what the hey?
The big question ought to be whodunit, but despite a good helping of criminal intrigue the real process of detection is called for by the characters’ rich internal lives, which extend far beyond the pages of the novel, and make the really big question, when is the next one coming out?
Kate Atkinson will read from When Will There Be Good News this afternoon (Friday 16 October) at The Friends Meeting House at 4pm for the Manchester Literature Festival. For more information visit the link to the right of the page.
Published: Fri, 16 October, 2009
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