The Book Club Review
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson
The Club had read a Kate Atkinson novel, Human Croquet, in
our first year, and given it a respectable if mixed review. Since
then, Ms Atkinson has become more prominent, with her
Jackson Brodie private detective series of novels televised on TV
as Case Histories, and being nominated recently for the
Women’s Prize for Fiction for Life after Life. Started Early, Took My
Dog was the latest, 2010, in her Jackson Brodie sequence, and
our Book Club discussion took place just one week before the TV
adaptation appeared on BBC1.
Atkinson’s style in these novels is languid and often amusing, and
feels a little tongue in cheek, even when the subject matter is
serious. Her descriptions of the decades about which she writes
seem very recognizable, and with a few deft strokes she soon
manages to paint a character. This Dog in our title duly features
as an abducted dog, but the real subject matter is child
abduction, under what circumstances the motivation for
kidnapping can ever be acceptable, and what the impact is
upon the child who is abducted. It sounds heavy stuff, and as
the book evolves, the reader is forced to challenge their own
preconceptions, while being carried along a swift moving
current of separate but linked stories and ideas. There are some
bewildering coincidences, and it is not clear what the relevance
of some characters is ever going to be. Most strands are cleverly
pulled together at the end, but some seem deliberately left
untied, no doubt waiting for a sequel……
The Book Club really enjoyed this book. The author’s style carried
them along and propelled them over the obstacles, rather as
the characters in the novel themselves, who keep scrambling
over the difficult barriers in their way. For some this proliferation of
characters and incidents was too great, and they could not
wholly engage with the underlying narrative of the story, getting
frustrated by the quick cuts between 1975 and the present day.
The majority that enjoyed the book accepted and
acknowledged these difficulties, but were quite prepared to
suspend some disbelief and go with the flow, finding the book
unputdownable. Many felt that Tracy was the true focus of the
book, rather than Jackson Brodie, and enjoyed a book where
our main detective was frequently out-pointed by his rivals. One
of Atkinson’s devices is the “stream of consciousness” that enters
a character’s brain, jumbling up reflections on the past with
what is happening in the present, not to mention plans and
ideas for the future. Most recognized this in the way their own
brain functions and were delighted by the randomness of
associations and sudden changes of direction.
Scores for this book were high, not quite at the top of the tree as
the average was pulled down by a couple of members who
were left cold by the genre and the story. Nevertheless this title
(and by the way, none of us understood the relevance of the
actual title used) has moved into our top ten.
As mentioned, the BBC adaptation appeared within days of our
meeting. On a straw poll, we hated it! This was despite a fine
performance by Victoria Wood as Tracy, and a believable
Jackson Brodie. The plot had been dismembered into its
component parts and re-stitched together quite mercilessly and
boringly to fit it into a TV series genre. Some characters were
conflated or omitted altogether, unwanted new ones
appeared, sequences of events were disturbed, coincidences
eliminated, and the air of innocent discovery and complex
motivations from the original quite dissipated. Most decided not
to follow the rest of the Case Histories series. Interesting.
Page Turner
Next Month: Wild Mary by Patrick Marnham