Beyond Black - so tell me what I've missed

[lalalonglegs]

I stuck with this - God knows I tried - but I just feel baffled by its popularity. I read Wolf Hall a few months ago which I found challenging but ended up loving, Beyond Black made no impact beyond irritation. It felt interminable and, although I persisted until the very end, didn't really seem to draw together at all (although I was speed-reading by this stage and may have missed some crucial detail).

So is it "a masterpiece of wit" (The Indy) and "a novel of desperate truthfulness" (Philip Pullman) or just rather tiresome and meh? Please tell me what I missed.

Tiresome and meh! I didn't get it at all. And it left a nasty taste in my mouth, although I'm not sure why. Love Wolf Hall though.

I tried to read it off the back of an R4 dramatisation with Alison Steadman which I enjoyed but really struggled with it.

I tried to read it off the back of an R4 dramatisation with Alison Steadman which I enjoyed but really struggled with it.

Whoops - it wasn't that bad.

Oh dear, I really wanted someone to point out its genius to me.

oh its not so bad

not marvelous mind, but not so bad

it is all about representation and Coming To Terms With Life

being fat is very metaphorical

likewise being beige

HTH

Umm, kind of... It was the endless, unedited wittering between Al and the bad spirits that I found particularly hard work. The dynamic between Al and Collette was quite interesting but the whole thing felt that it was going round in circles.

Wasn't it listed for the Booker? Why, why, why?

I thought it was crap.

Mayor, what do you mean by 'representation' and being fat being metaphorical?

about 2000 pages too long. Wolf Hall was brilliant though.

hmm

read it a while back

all the ghosts - are they actual manifestations of spirits or "mental" images that haunt alison?? is she fat in order to cushion herself from the blows of life? that kind of thing, i think...

couldn't finish, but loved Wolf Hall. I've found Kate Atkinson like this though - very good early stuff, enjoyable recent stuff, but a few bad books in the middle, for some reason

Wolf Hall deffo better than Beyond Black but still quite irritatingly written. I won't be bothering with any more of hers.

Won't bother with any more by Kate Atkinson either: she really irritates me and gets worse with every book as far as I can tell (I liked BTSATM a lot though and like the character of JB just not the books he's in).

Thanks, mayor, see what you mean. Interesting ideas, but I still thought it was quite rubbish as an actual read.

Brandon, I also loved Behind the Scenes... and Human Croquet, but can't stand anything since. Come back early-period Kate Atkinson!

:) I hated Human Croquet, although I didn't read it until a year or two ago. I think she has become a really lazy writer, who makes too much use of easy coincidences rather than bothering to think/work a bit more.

Another one who loved Museum but cannot stand any other Kate Atkinson books. I don't enjoy magic realism generally though - I find it trite and irritating.

mayor - Not convinced by the fat thing - think it was more a signifier of Alison's fatalism.