This is the 6th Kate Atkinson I've read, two of which "Life After Life" (2013) and "Case Histories" (2004) have made my end of year Top 10s. She has always really impressed me. There's been three 5* ratings and two 4*s which makes me a little uneasy to say that this didn't make the impact upon me that I was expecting it to.
There is no doubt that it is well-written. The author is one of the best around and her hallmarks of quality, her rich language, her feel for time and location, her confidence and playfulness are all in evidence here but there is just something lacking in a work I thought I'd love.
It's 1926 and we begin with nightclub legend Nellie Coker (based on the real life Kate Meyrick – the one-time Queen of London's clubland) and her release from prison going back to take control of her empire managed by her offspring whilst she was incarcerated. Inspector Frobisher suspects her of darker dealings than she'd been jailed for and enlists the help of ex-librarian Gwendolyn who has come to London from York to track down a couple of missing girls, seduced by the lure of the West End stage. I really like the sound of this even as I'm writing it and putting these plot-lines into a heady mix of The Jazz Age, The Bright Young Things, alcohol and drugs it feels like my highest star rating would have been inevitable.
It just feels cluttered. It's pretty much an ensemble piece with no clearly defined main character- Gwendolyn, perhaps? Not all of the characters worked, some I wanted more from, some didn't matter to me and almost felt they got in the way preventing the magic I felt was always under the surface from happening. It doesn't flow consistently, and is a little stop-start which I found ultimately frustrating. It starts to get really good on a number of occasions then switches to another plot-line or to less interesting characters. I can follow multiple narrative threads but there were moments here I felt I wasn't keeping up, which was a little unsettling and I think this was to do with flow. I really wanted to get the feel of the London nightlife of this era but it felt a little superficial. I felt I wasn't being pulled into the Coker's nightclubs, I was still outside in the queue. I wanted to be more of a participant in this world than a spectator and this author really has the skills to let this happen.
There's quite a lot of back-story and this is something I also usually like but here it held things up.
In its feel and depth there is a sense of a more modern slant on a Dickensian novel and there were echoes for me of the experience I felt reading Fiona Mozley's London novel (also set in another era) "Hot Stew" (2021) which had the same feel of a more modern slant upon Dickens and which also did not quite hit home in the way her previous novel "Elmet" had.
I'm so perplexed about how I feel about this that I looked at Good Reads whilst writing this review which I seldom do. It is a bit of a mixed bag 25%-5*, 43%-4*, 24%-3* which suggests its certainly not a disaster but that its not classic Kate Atkinson for everyone. All the elements are there, they just don't come together consistently enough for this reader.
Shrines Of Gaiety was first published in 2022. I read the 2023 Penguin paperback edition.
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