Transcription

Kate Atkinson is one of my favorite authors. I love how she develops the characters and their rich emotional lives. That is until this book. There seemed to be such a large focus on intrigue, that emotion and motivation were left behind. I was often left wondering, why did they do that? This was especially true with the last reveal about Juliet. If Kate Atkinson point was to leave the reader feeling like they might never understand, nor should they trust, anyone, even characters in a book, she succeeded.

Though I heartily enjoyed Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie novels, it’s been downhill in recent years. Transcription had the promise of an interesting WWII theme, a woman narrator, and an offbeat view of “the war at home” and postwar England. While some of this novel was engaging – figuring out the foreshadowing and plot hints – the unflagging chatty asides (like this, you see?) combined with uneven pacing and hard-to-distinguish male characters results in a disappointing effort all around. The final straw was the massive plot download at the end, which makes one wonder if the author, like this reader, simply tired of the whole affair.

After a strong review in The NY Times, perhaps my expectations were too high. The first half of the book is bland, excepting its description of London at the time. The second half seems to me about a wholly different Juliet, even allowing for some maturation, with events and twists coming unexplained and unmotivated, as far as I could discern. Why did Godfrey refuse to acknowledge her anyway? Was there even a hint in the prior 300 pages of the final reveal?

Ok, so I really did love this book. The characters I thought were well-developed, Juliet was intelligent, witty, and daring. The plot was engaging, and I really enjoyed the humor. It was very dry, and it often popped up at just the exact right moment. I knew I was going to finish the book no matter what at only 3% in based off this unexpected and hilarious gem:

“The cat, a ginger one–they were the worst type of cat, in Juliet’s opinion–had jumped up on the desk and bitten her–quite sharply, so that she couldn’t help but give a little yelp of pain. It then proceeded to roll around on the desk before rubbing its face on the microphone and purring so loudly that anyone listening must have thought there was a panther loose in the studio, on that was very pleased with itself for having killed a woman.”

The humor was honestly delightful. However, with all of that being said, I did struggle to connect with Juliet for quite a few more chapters than I usually like. She was very distant to me. There wasn’t anything that really gripped me about her one way or the other, until her far more subtle character finally started shining through… So that made it a bit difficult to engage with the story for a long time. And then as other reviews have mentioned, there are some pacing problems. I really dislike books that are full speed ahead until a certain turning point in the book, not close enough to the end, and then they suddenly swap over to a slower pace. Which was very much the case with this book. There were twists I didn’t see coming at all, and I absolutely LOVE that, but I felt I would have enjoyed it slightly more had the pacing issues been worked out.

Overall though, I’m very much not sorry I read it. It was another fantastic novel by Ms Atkinson! Not quite my favorite of hers, if you know what I mean, but well worth the purchase!!!

I had looked forward to a good, World War II spy story, but this one disappointed on many levels. The jumping around in time is clunky and does not have smooth transitions thereby disrupting the story. The narrative begins with a slightly affected way of thinking and speaking; fortunately that wanes somewhat as the plot kicks into action. The main character is not developed in a way that shows consistency. She is described as being regarded highly by her work superiors, but if they are flattering her to simply obtain favors from her, theyve made a grave error. She kept making pretty dumb mistakes; lying at her interview, telling poorly-contrived falsehoods for her cover story at social/spying events, then not coming clean on her mistakes thereby compounding them, etc. I wanted to like her and sympathize with her, but she wasnt the friendliest person. On a social scale also, her actions dont seem consistent. She goes out and parties most nights and one logically assumes there is some mingling with the opposite sex. But then she shows clear unsophistication or naivete as she wonders why her supervisor doesnt make romantic gestures. As a spy, shes untrained. She doesnt seem to realize until belatedly, that if shes going to mingle with bad-intentioned people during wartime, then she and anyone leaving these events will likely be spied upon. And thats just the beginning of the story. When the action does finally speed up, it is not a slick, spy story. Rather, her character and those she works closest with can best be described as inept.

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