Emotionally Weird

by Kate Atkinson

The latest magical mystery tour de force from one of Britain’s most original novelists – winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award for Behind the Scenes at the Museum .On a peat and heather island off the West Coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother, Nora, take refuge in the large mouldering house of their ancestors and tell each other stories. Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, such as the identity of her real father – variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie. Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, the land of cakes and William Wallace, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and the Germans. But strange things are happening. Why is Effie being followed? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog?In a brilliant comic narrative which explores the nonsensical nature of language and meaning, Kate Atkinson has created another masterpiece.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Fiction, Scotland, Contemporary, Mystery, Literary Fiction, British Literature, Humor

352 pages, Hardcover

First published March 2, 2000

About the author

Kate Atkinson was born in York and now lives in Edinburgh. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and she has been a critically acclaimed international bestselling author ever since.

She is the author of a collection of short stories, Not the End of the World, and of the critically acclaimed novels Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Case Histories, and One Good Turn.

Case Histories introduced her readers to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, and won the Saltire Book of the Year Award and the Prix Westminster.

When Will There Be Good News? was voted Richard & Judy Book Best Read of the Year. After Case Histories and One Good Turn, it was her third novel to feature the former private detective Jackson Brodie, who makes a welcome return in Started Early, Took My Dog.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can you see the cover of Emotionally Weird that I read? I don't know, but if it's a peach colored cover with a sort of crappy drawing of a redheaded woman smoking and a dog then you are seeing it? Or maybe you are seeing the new cover, which is dark and fits with the covers of Kate Atkinson's later novels? Or maybe you see the British covers with the big and dopey but cute looking dog on the cover? I read the peach colored one, with the girly script. The one that screams early to mid-ought chick-lit. The one that would make you think this is about a young woman who frets and worries that her almost perfect life is not a hundred percent perfect because she hasn't yet married the most amazing man in the world, but until then she will shop for shoes and complain about her glamourous job. That the author is Scottish and not English might be a hint that this isn't the case, but shouldn't England's neighbors to the North be able to produce self-absorbed novels for young and privileged young ladies?

Normally, I believe that the maxim you can't judge a book by it's cover is bullshit. You can judge almost every book by it's cover, the cover is usually an excellent signpost to what you are getting into. Yeah, every now and then you'll have a book with some amazing Chip Kidd cover that turns out to be garbage, but it's rare that you are totally mistaken about what kind of book you are getting yourself into. Here though, the cover is totally misleading. I don't think there is a single shoe bought in the book, the narrator does pine for an unknown mystery man who she thinks it would be fabulous to get to make out with, but those moments of wistful yearning are just a few pages of the 350 that make up the novel. The rest of the novel is something that is much more Broom of the System era David Foster Wallace than anything by Sophie Kinsella or her ilk.

You wouldn't expect a book with this cover to make jokes about Barthes and Adorno.

At first when I started reading this book I took pains to hide the cover when reading it on the subway. I felt my already low masculinity was in danger of completely evaporating. But after a day or so of reading it, I stopped worrying about silly things like that, because even if I might be judged silently by strangers I knew that I was reading a very un-chick book, and a book that is quite good. So damn you judging strangers!

The novel. The novel and the nature of telling stories is sort of what is going on in this book. The basic gist, without giving away too much is a young woman is telling a story, which may be true or may be a novel she's working on, to a woman who may be her mother or may not be. The story is about a few weeks in the winter of 1972 at a college in Dundee, Scotland. The narrator is an English major (is that what they call them over there across the pond?) who is writing a detective novel for a creative writing class, so the story breaks every now and then to have some of the awful student novel given in the text. Along with the interjection of this novel within the story, the 'real world' intrudes on the text too, with dialogue between the narrator and the woman who may or may not be her mother, and to give one last tweak to the stories within stories structure the woman who may or may not be the narrator's mother has her own story to tell.

This sounds like a mess, but the way Atkinson handles these stories within stories is not nearly as difficult as I'm making it sound, it's more confusing to think about then to actually read. The use of different fonts for different narrative levels keeps the reader from getting lost.

Like DFW's first novel, this is at heart a comic novel. It's more of a 'college' novel than DFW's, but you could almost imagine that the Amherst that shows up in Broom of the System exists in the same universe as Atkinson's Dundee. It's a lampoon of theory and the personalities that inhabit academia. It's filled with jokes mocking (post)structural theorists, student activists, and the swelled up egos of self-centered professors. Good stuff, but unfortunately even with the new 'darker' cover I don't think this book is ever going to call out to the type of reader who would enjoy it most.

[Sibyl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed and it was an effort to get through to the end.

Although Kate Atkinson is rarely dull, this novel is meandering and comes perilously close to being self-indulgent.

It's as if the writer is having so much fun recalling her own time as an English student, satirising her would-be-radical classmates and dysfunctional lecturers, that she loses sight of the fact that this territory has been thoroughly covered by other novelists. (It's like a post-modernist take on David Lodge.) Despite her inventiveness there's something stereotypical about many of the (large) cast of characters. I couldn't work out whether the author was being lazy, or had just got carried away.

The novel is essentially two narratives. One, related by Nora, is a Gothic tale about her forebears. The other recounted by Effie is the narrative about student life. In the final pages the two stories come together and Effie finds out who she 'really' is. Unfortunately I, didn't really care.

(However I am currently really enjoying the detective novels which Kate Atkinson went on to write...)

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a novel most likely to be appreciated by (a) those who studied English literature at university during the 1970s (b) readers familiar with the conventions of postmodern fiction and (c) fans of Kate Atkinson's quirky style and predilection for writing about dysfunctional families.

In essence, this is a novel about words and story-telling. Effie and her mother or possibly not her mother Nora are the two narrators. Together in a rundown house on a desolate island off the coast of Scotland, they tell each other stories. Effie tells Nora about her experiences at university in Dundee, where she studies English literature and lives with Bob, a fellow student who spends more time stoned than he does studying. Nora, rather more relunctantly and cryptically, tells Effie about their family history. Effie's story is interspersed with extracts from the not-very-good crime fiction novel she is writing for her creative writing class. In time, the two narrative strands become increasingly tangled and eventually, as was always going to happen, they merge.

Atkinson has written a novel that plays with and and parodies an array of elements prevalent in postmodern literature: metafiction, intertextuality, fragmentation, poioumenon and a rather silly touch of ironic magic realism. I spent the first third of the novel laughing out loud on pretty much every page. As I went on, the laughs were fewer and further between as the narrative became darker and more chaotic.

I don't often think that I would have enjoyed a novel more if it had been shorter. This was one of those times. The increasing craziness of Effie's story grew a bit tedious after a while and, much as I love Atkinson's writing, I was relieved when she shifted into wind-up mode. For me, this was more of a 3.5 than a 4 star read.

This is not a novel for everyone, and particuarly not for readers who believes that a novel should have a point. But if you don't mind having a laugh at postmodernism with a writer who doesn't take herself too seriously, it may be worth a try.

A buddy read with my friend and fellow Atkinson fangirl, Jemidar.

[Jemidar · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 3.5 stars.

While I enjoyed this, I'm not at all sure what to make of it or how to review it. The first part was laugh out loud funny in places (especially if you've ever been a uni student--lets face it, we all knew someone like Bob) but I'm sure I missed the finer points Atkinson was making about post modernism and literature. In the end it all seemed to go nowhere but I'm pretty sure that was the point.

I'm glad I read it though as I love Atkinson's writing and loved how she played with ideas in this novel. I'm also a bit of a fangirl and a an OCD completest so it was definitely worth reading, I'm just not sure this is one of her better ones.

Another great buddy read with Kim who explains it all much better than I ever could here :).

P.S. To answer your question Anna, this is not at all like the Jackson Brodie books.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a bizarre story. Post modern, absurd, funny and in the end made sense. There are quite a few laugh out loud moments in this story of a Dundee student in 1972 telling a story within a story to her mother not her mother Nora.

Students doing an English literature degree with lecturers who should never teach. George Elliot, the inedible salmon, paranoia by all, a mysterious dog and some surreal relationships and events. Atkinson is a very funny author and this is most definitely nothing to do with her detective Jackson Brodie.

I can understand why this story would not be everyones cup of tea but it’s worth preserving with and one day I hope to visit Dundee.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Effie finds Bob her boyfriend in bed with another woman which relieves her of having to find an excuse to leave him. Her quasi mother finally tells her the true story of her parentage. Nora is not her mother. Nora was the product of her brother and sister. Effie’s mother was Mabel the housekeeper to her supposed father Donald who married her. However, Chick the cortina driving detective is her father. Strangely it all comes together.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emotionally Weird is the third stand-alone novel by award-winning British author, Kate Atkinson. It is the early seventies and twenty-one-year-old Euphemia Andrews (Effie) goes home to the family’s summer holiday house on a remote west coast Scottish island where she shares stories with her mother Eleanora (Nora). Effie relates recent events in her life at University in Dundee; Nora, at first unforthcoming, begins to reveal facts about Effie’s true heritage (like her real surname), eventually relating the history of the Stuart-Murray family, including the death of the aunt after whom Effie was named. In Dundee, while trying to meet essay deadlines for her English degree and thinking about leaving the incredibly lazy Bob, Effie becomes convinced she is being followed: there’s this woman in a red coat; and a middle-aged ex-cop turned PI named Chick driving a white Cortina keeps turning up. There are a few deaths that may or may not be natural; several people around her believe someone is trying to kill them; her friend Terri is looking for a lost yellow dog; her tutor’s son is released from prison. Effie relates the events at Dundee like a novel, with Nora interrupting to critique her characters, plot and dialogue. Similarly, Effie interjects into Nora’s story-telling.
Atkinson’s character descriptions (and there is a large cast) are marvellously evocative. The description of the English tutorial (obviously taken from Atkinson’s own experience) is at once blindingly accurate and hilariously funny. The ongoing commentary on creative writing and the (over-)analysis of literature is clever and amusing. The atmosphere of early seventies is expertly conveyed. This is effectively a story (or several) within a story within a story, and Atkinson manages to include snippets of poetry, a play, a medieval fantasy saga, a crime novel, a metaphysical epic tome, and a Mills & Boon style romance, each printed in its own appropriate text style. While Effie’s story does seem to ramble on a bit, drawing criticism from Nora, Emotionally Weird has plenty of humour (some of it quite black) and enough intrigue to keep the reader engaged to the final pages. Another excellent dose of Atkinson.

[Will Ansbacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fifty Shades of Tay *

- So, you’re reviewing Emotionally Weird?

‘Yes, it’s quite good, in a sorta-kinda way. It’s basically a bunch of comic portraits and situations along with some authentic-sounding local colour (if you know Dundee and the silvery Tay, that is). And it's packed with literary allusions, like that one. I didn’t actually laugh out loud, though some of it is quite amusing. But I think Atkinson must have had a lot more fun writing this than I had reading it.’

- OK, but that doesn’t exactly tell me much. What’s the plot?

‘Well, there isn't one really. Effie is writing this comic story based on her life and reading parts of it to her mother Nora, who lives on a bleak remote island off the west coast of Scotland. The story is an inducement for Nora to respond by telling her more about her family and origins, of which she knows nothing at all.’

- That’s it? So is Nora’s story funny too?

‘No, though at times the dialogue between them is. Nora is a reluctant storyteller, but sometimes interrupts Effie to tell her what’s “wrong” with her tale – too many characters (which is true), an improbable turn of events or a character killed off (which Nora says you can’t do in a comic novel) - and Effie obliges by changing her story to suit.’

- So it’s a bit post-modern? Effie as the unreliable narrator?

‘In a way. Nora could be too, for that matter, as there’s barely any corroboration of her story either. Except at the end where ...’

- No, don’t tell me! But basically a po-mo story within a story, with some comedy, then?

‘No, it’s more involved than that: for example, Nora’s sister turns up in Effie’s tale before Effie even knows who she is; elements of magical realism and all that. Also, Effie is taking a Creative Writing course, where her assignment is a detective novel featuring a “Madam Astarti”, and elements of that story are intertwined too. Ironically, the Astarti story is stilted and full of clichés, just as you’d expect a novice might write.’

- Umm, that’s not actually ironic, that’s just the classic Russian Doll genre - an intentionally bad story within a magical-realist story within a po-mo story. But what’s the problem with that, except no humour yet?

‘Well it just doesn’t go anywhere.’

- Much like this review, I’d say. And I’m confused ...

‘You’re confused? Imagine how confused Effie was when Nora told her ...’

- I said, don’t tell me! Can you just get on with it? Plus you still haven’t mentioned anything that sounds remotely comic.

‘I’m just giving you a flavour of the dialogue; trying to have the sort of fun that Atkinson must have had writing it. And which I didn’t really get reading it.’

- So you said. But if so little happened, can you just tell me in 50 words or less? The comic bits?

‘OK, it’s 1972. Effie is 21 and a student at the University of Dundee. Her boyfriend Bob is an indolent dweeb and obsessed with Star Trek, and she’s looking for a way to ease him out of her life. There are a whole bunch of quite amusing character sketches of her friends, other students, university lecturers (ranging from lecherous to doddery) and a private investigator called Chick who keeps turning up at the most unexpected times.
And dozens of situational vignettes where Atkinson lampoons excruciating tutorial sessions, earnest women’s lib meetings, grotty student accommodation, deathly faculty parties and so on. Bob is also reluctantly enrolled in a philosophy course which lets Atkinson have a bit of fun with propositional logic. Stuff like that.
Effie moves almost passively through all this in a kind of daze, trying to avoid her professors because she’s never quite ready to hand in any work, while constantly slipping into the Astarti assignment ...’

- That’s a lot more than 50 but never mind, I think I get the picture now.

‘It took Atkinson a lot more too. The problem is, too little action and nothing really revealed until the last 40 pages or so when Nora finally starts to open up and tells Effie the family secrets ...’

- !!

‘Don’t worry, there’s a spoiler. Nora is not her mother, but Chick is her father; Nora thinks she murdered her sister who is actually her mother, and that’s only part of it. But that part isn’t comic at all, (though it isn’t sad either) and the story sputters out in 1999 with Effie returning to Dundee and reflecting on that period in 1972.
The End.

It isn’t a bad book, and I liked Emotionally Weird a little more after I’d reflected on it myself; it was clever if nothing else. But I think it would have been much better if it had been shorter. 'Nuff said?’
------------------------------

* Note – there is virtually no sex in Emotionally Weird (although everyone is doing it), and not really 50 references to the colour of the Tay either, (there are only a dozen or so). I thought I was being clever with my own literary allusion here, but it turns out others thought of that first (go on, Google it).

[Mavis Thresher · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story of Effie and her mother Norah, who claims to have experienced a virgin birth. Effie takes a creative writing course at Dundee University which appears to be full of eccentrics, both faculty and students. Effie, several fellow students and a few of the professors are working on predictably rotten creative writing projects, from which Atkinson quotes frequently in an annoying array of typefaces. The class lectures consist of comically impenetrable lit-theory jargon. Since she’s not doing much schoolwork, Effie careens around Dundee in the company of testy commune dwellers, stoners, muddle-headed malcontents, the hilariously dotty English department head, a pair of crones on the lam from the old folks home and a seedy, mysterious private investigator who keeps turning up out of nowhere and shanghaiing her into assisting him on evidently pointless stakeouts.The book tries to be funny in a screwball kind of way, but with the lack of a credible character, including the heroine, it becomes more irritating than interesting. I was delighted to have found a Kate Atkinson novel that I had never read, but was very disappointed with this one and didn't persevere to the end.

[Riff · Rating 2 out of 5]

An extremely disappointing book, which begins by setting expectations high only to dash them. It’s a novel of two parts, framed and occasionally interrupted by an interesting and beautifully composed story involving a mother and daughter who themselves tell one another stories. This slight part of the book could have been the making for a wonderful novel, but unfortunately it turns out to be merely the packaging to a most tiresome text about university life that plods without pleasure or purpose. It is clever, and tries to be comic, it attempts to satirise itself rather guiltily, but there is no substance that makes the reader’s journey worthwhile at all. I am almost certain that the author knew the college story was quite poor, and so tried to revive it with the framing story. The unfortunate side effect of this great framing story is that it merely shows more vividly the significant problems of the main body of text. Terribly boring, I could barely face finishing it, and I couldn’t recommend it all.

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised to see that this was my first book by Kate Atkinson, it's an author I've seen and heard much about but apparently never read before. Sadly this one wasn't a winner that made me over excited to read more by her but I'll give her a few more tries before giving up completely. This had some good moments and it was mildly entertaining although not a book I'll remember for long or take much out of

[Diane Dickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I just don't know. I finished this a few days ago and I am still trying to make up my mind. I have enjoyed all the other Atkinson books I have read and I enjoyed this - kind of. It was a bit like picking at a spot in a way, I was getting pleasure from it but I couldn't say why.

To be honest there was a section in the middle where I would have given up if I'd been the sort of person who gives up on books, this only happens when they are very,very dire. This certainly wasn't that, the writing was proficient and it was well edited and so on, but it was so gloomy and a bit depressing to be honest.

Head Hopping!!! well, the anti head hoping brigade would be having kittens.

The characters were fascinating, all of them and there were many. I did get tired of the muck and the awful food and the dreadful experiences. There were times when I wanted to shout at Effie "Get a Grip Girl" and times when I wanted to wrap her in a nice warm blanky.

The ending however was good, I had an inkling a very short time before the reveal but not too long before.

Taken all round I would say yes I enjoyed the read, it was different and it was well done but there's no getting away from it it was WEIRD.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through and I have guffawed and giggled hysterically more while reading this than I have in the past five years altogether. I've HAD to read passages out loud to my poor husband when all he wanted to do was sleep or check his emails. My dog and cat wonder what the heck is causing my bizarre behavior, as I've been hitherto a calmish person. I sure hope Atkinson can bring this to a good conclusion, but even if she can't, I'll be grateful for what she's done so far. Review to follow when I've finished. Stay tuned.

[Christine Stormont · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book was extremely boring and self indulgent and I couldn't finish it. I'm a great fan of Kate Atkinson's work so I was looking forward to reading this but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the sort of book I appreciated more in retrospect than during the reading itself. Comprised of two stories really, with minor offshoots, on the whole it works, but it isn't even. In fact the Effie's origin story, the one that takes up the least amount of literary real estate by far, is also by far is the most interesting. The other half, the young Effie's college years, is too irreverent or something like that to be wholly engaging. Because the storylines are interwoven, there is a very strong meta vibe to the book, that really only pays out in the end. The ending is actually the best, most original part of the story and it showcases where Atkinson's talents really lie, with mysteries, as is evident by the terrific Jackson Brodie series. So I didn't love Emotionally Weird, but I appreciated it and Atkinson is an awesome writer, very clever with a great sense of humor, making for a fairly enjoyable reading regardless of the certain plot aspects and patience it might have required at times.

[The Cats’ Mother · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m giving up at page 110. I tried, I really did, because I loved her Jackson Brodie books, and I do feel I should read something a bit more literary from time to time, but I was just getting more and more irritated.
What I got so far: Effie is visiting her mother, who lives on a remote Scottish Island, telling stories about life as a student in 1970s Dundee, where she lives with a lump of a boyfriend she doesn’t like, and supposedly studies English.
She goes to a tutorial, then gets half-heartedly abducted by a private investigator alongside her friend, her tutor and a stray dog. Then she babysits for another of her tutors. She doesn’t like any of these people, describing them all in bitchy detail, which might be witty if it were funny. That’s all that has happened and I’m a third of the way through.
I can’t take any more so am abandoning it, and will go rinse my brain with some Jo Nesbo.

[Katerina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Кейт Аткинсон издевается над постмодернизмом, причем весьма успешно.

Книжка, где в каждом абзаце кроется как минимум одна ирония, одна зевгма и парочка каламбуров, — уже повод для ботанической филологической радости; добавьте туда сюжет с потерянными и обретенными родителями/детьми, неотапливаемым старым университетом, творчески ебанутыми студентами, преподавателями с потерей памяти, двумя харизма��ичными собаками, хомячком, сбежавшими из дома престарелых старушками... — кажется, продолжать уже не требуется? Учитывая, что все эти невероятные концы развязаны по-настоящему, герои не умирают, если слушатель не захочет, а внутри спрятана еще парочка историй про семинар по creative writing — это вообще клад, а не книжечка.

[Ksenia (vaenn) · Rating 4 out of 5]

З'ясувала, що один з романів Аткінсон (цьогорічний поки що не рахуємо) таки пропустила. А потім з'ясувала, що його таки переклали російською (ну і на честь дня народження дозволила собі не напружуватися). Стала на дрібочку щасливішою.

Якщо коротко, то Emotionally Weird - це типове "Обоже, ця жінка вирішила ні в чому собі не відмовляти!". Пародія на тру_брітіш сімейну сагу з шотландським колоритом (багаті спадкоємиці, нещасні сім'ї, загублені діаманти, хлопчики, які не повернулися з війни, розбиті ударом голови родини, something nasty в асортименті - оце от усе). Пародія на університетський роман про кафедральні чвари. Пародія на університетський роман про сердитих молодих... а, підставте, кого треба (наприклад, фем-активісток другої хвилі). Пародія на детектив - і готичний, і cosy. Пародія на постмодерний роман, з якого щедро вихлюпується метатекст. Пародія на а-ля вікторіанський роман виховання. Пародія... Нє, досить, мабуть, хоча там ще є.

І все таке лискуче, яскраве (хоча діло відбувається сіренькою шотландською зимою 1972 року), пересипане алюзійками, прихованими цитатами та натяками. У тому числі, на попередні та наступні тексти самої Аткінсон. Відкриття №1: якби раніше прочитала цей роман, не здивувалася б епілогу "Бога в руїнах". Відкриття №2: зате видно, звідки виросли ноги в Джексона Бровді (на моменті "уяви, як чоловік із псом гуляють пляжем" на мене аж гикавка напала). Відкриття №3: от як у цієї жінки так виходить, що половина апріорних персонажів-функцій вигляда живішими, ніж в багатьох інших письменників - герої багатотомних циклів? Відкриття №4: цим текстом дуже легко об'їстися, він too much в усіх сенсах. Але в оцій своїй надмірності він крутий. Хоча й неілюзорно виснажливий.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a great lover of Kate Atkinson's writing although I basically started with the Jackson Brodie series and moved on to her more recent works, only lately going back to read her earlier writing such as this one, her third novel.
It is hard to categorise this one, or even decide what it is really about. It is subtitled 'A Comic Novel' and certainly there is a level of humour throughout the book, be it the relationship between Effie and Nora, Effie's fellow students in Dundee or the dognapping incidents.
As the book starts, it is 1972 and Effie is on a remote and otherwise uninhabited island off the Scottish coast with her 'mother', Nora, living in their crumbling ancestral holiday home. Effie is trying to find out about her past from Nora but even the identity of her father is shrouded in mystery and contradiction. So Effie commences to tell her mother all about her life at Dundee University, her studies, her professors and her fellow students and their interrelationships. This forms the majority of the book, interspersed with comments from her mother and excerpts from a crime novel that Effie is writing as part of her studies.
Both Effie and Nora are unreliable narrators, but in an amusing way. If Effie tells her mother something that her mother doesn't like and objects to, Effie goes back over the incident and changes the narrative completely. I did wonder how the story was going to be brought to a conclusion but, even though there wasn't really an absolute ending, certain issues were resolved and the threads of Effie and Nora's stories were brought together somewhat. Overall, I found this to be quite an enjoyable read - despite the somewhat off-putting cover and title - indeed, it probably lived up to the title of being 'Emotionally Weird'! So I would still rate it as a 4-star read for me and now have to decide whether to carry on to read her also strangely-named second novel, Human Croquet - 8/10.

[Maurice Arh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have yet to encounter a Kate Atkinson book I didn’t like. This one no exception. It is a post-modern comic novel, dealing with post-modernism in the only way a serious author can. By relentlessly taking the piss.
If that were all it was, it wouldn’t be much. But the post-modern pisstake is merely a framework to hang a much more humane and observational humour. The story is about a girl and her mother, a book she is writing and a story she is telling. Or somethng like that – it takes a little while for the sense of it all to bed in, but then that is all part of the fun. The bulk of the words are taken up by the goings on of a group of English Lit students in Scotland. The setting is Dundee University in the 1970s. I did my own university time in New Zealand in the 1980s, but given what we know about the warped nature of space and time, that’s pretty much the same place. It all felt very familiar. The only oddity, then, was the title. Nobody seemed all that emotionally weird to me, at least no more so than normal. What conclusion are we supposed to take from that?
This appears to be one of the more neglected Atkinson novels. I got my copy from the public library and the librarian had to go retrieve it from their basement archives. That’s a shame. There aren’t all that many books that are as funny s this one and they deserve all the attention they can get.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this clever and humorous novel, Kate Atkinson deploys various post-modern novel techniques (bickering narrators, meta-discussion of the story being told, malleable text, and various novels-within-novels set out in varied--and clever--typefaces) to skewer the academy and its fascination with, well, the post-modern novel.

Effie and her mother (or, rather, "mother") Nora are on a desolate, ruined Scottish island telling their life stories, while Effie's story of university life in 1972--complete with acid-heavy parties, unfinished essays, student protests, back-to-the-land communes, and jargon-spouting professors--unfolds as the novel she is narrating. Interspersed with this story and the Effie-Nora story are excerpts from Effie's detective novel and several other novels being composed by her classmates and professors. Far, however, from the plotless metaphysical text-experiments her professors urge, Effie's and Nora's stories also contain gripping suspense and plot twists, leading to a very satisfying reveal at the end.

[Jess Van Dyne-Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

My father used to write for a student's journal in college back in the sixties. Students would send in short stories full of twisty, tormented characters who wore black and smoked a lot, their general air of dejection and resolution that the world was ending soon the most striking thing about them. This book (and also the other Atkinson I picked up, One Good Turn) were populated with such characters - people who didn't give a damn anymore and just wanted help getting through the night.

I didn't like the book so much as I was intrigued to see where all her loose ends were going.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 1 out of 5]

File this under DNF. I read half and it's about NOTHING. 14,000,000 characters all with zero personality. I'll give her one more try, but this book was a real stinker. Too many good ones to waste my time reading drivel.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was really 2.5 stars for me. I rarely dole out half stars and I don't usually have to deliberate over star allotment. But Emotionally Weird left me conflicted. I liked the first half, was bored for the second half but it does have a pretty good ending with clever last lines. I was disappointed that I didn't love Emotionally Weird, as I usually love Kate Atkinson's experimental novels. But you win some, you lose some.

Our narrator is Effie. She's staying with her mother, Nora, on a rocky island off the coast of Scotland at their ancestral home. Effie recounts for her mother her misadventures and antics at university. All the while she tries to get her mother to reveal more about their past, such as who Effie's father is.

I have to say, the cover of my edition of Emotionally Weird is misleading. The shout line on the front claims it's "A full-bore, old-fashioned yarn" and says it's a page-turner. Wrong and wrong again. It's not old-fashioned, it's postmodern. It's not a page-turner as there's no plot and for most of the book nothing happens. On the back, Newsday proclaims that "Atkinson has found her best subject." Again, I have to disagree. Atkinson's best subject is the dysfunctional family saga, not college life. The family drama is where the interesting stuff lies but Atkinson mostly shirks this until the end. In-book, it's frustratingly referenced that two of the characters from this family saga-lite could have had their own book. Yes: I agree, and they probably should have. The synopsis is also misleading, making it sound like it's this great back and forth storytelling sesh between mother and daughter. In reality it's primarily about college life in the '70s. Nora is given short shrift and I wish we got to hear more from her and more details of her story.

I enjoyed things for the first 160 pages. I was taken by Atkinson's characteristic wordplay, puns, and the way she questions the usage of language and common expressions. I initially liked the wacky characters and the meta nature of the novel. I was charmed at first but the veneer wears thin. There's no plot, which is not excused by having meta commentary remarking on the lack of plot. Nothing happens. Things get repetitive fast, with too much riding around in cars, chasing dogs, falling asleep in the middle of doing things, and not doing schoolwork. I also felt that there were no true stakes because things can be undone in Effie's story at Nora's request. This is also annoying because you can't even tell what's really happened or not.

I couldn't keep all the dumb, wacky characters straight. There are too many characters (which again, is remarked upon by Nora in true meta fashion). Effie has no personality and feels quite characterless. She's like a blank slate which may be the point but then what is there to connect to? No plot, lack of characterization . . . You get the idea. There's too much unintelligible literary and academic theory spouted by the professors and students which the characters themselves don't even understand. And this gibberish is spouted ad nauseam. It's for reasons like this that the comedy I enjoyed at the beginning wears thin.

The structure wants to be very sophisticated and complex but ends up feeling like a smoke and mirrors show. There's too much of Effie's boring George Eliot essay and bad mystery novel throughout. I didn't care for the jarring way these texts are suddenly plopped into the novel. Emotionally Weird definitely feels self-indulgent.

Overall, this novel is frustrating in its failed potential. It's so promising in the beginning. Then I kept asking myself what the point was. Due to the redeeming ending, I see what Atkinson was trying to do, with her commentary on the nature and methods of storytelling. It just didn't work for me as a whole. This was an especially hard read since I recently read and loved Atkinson's Human Croquet, which is a much more successful experimental novel. Emotionally Weird pales in comparison, with the boring bits feeling like a chore to get through. If you want a book where Kate Atkinson's plot and characterizations dance off the page, try Human Croquet instead.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this is the weirdest book I have read so far this year. Even thinking about trying to describe the plot has me scratching my head and thinking where on Earth can I begin?

Effie, our lead character, is staying with her "mother" Nora on a tiny Scottish island in their inherited (but rapidly decaying) family holiday home and they tell each other stories of their life to pass the time. Effie's focuses on her life as a student at the University of Dundee. Nora slowly reveals the secret of Effie's parental origins. However this is not a straight-forward biography but a series of narratives in which characters either tell their stories directly (Effie and her "mother" Nora), interupt each other's narratives (Effie and Nora) or are involved in writing their own fictional narratives primarily via the medium of a creative writing class(quite a few other people). We are introduced to snippets of crime fiction, swords and dragons fantasy, existential angst and a wannabe-Mills and Boon doctor-nurse romance as the characters attempt to find meaning through stories and writing.

With a huge cast of characters, constantly recurring elements (Chick in his Cortina, an increasingly inedible piece of salmon at the McCues', the yellow dog, Professor Cousins who turns up and never seems to know why or what he is doing, students constantly asking for essays for Maggie Mackenzie's class etc) I found this novel often laugh aloud funny. However I can also see that Emotionally Weird has the power to annoy people tremendously. It is unusual and plays with the concept of writing itself "-Plot development? Nora murmurs quietly, almost to herself. 'Is not necessary in this post-modern day and age,' I tell her firmly" as one of Nora's interruptions to Effie's story reads. But I certainly enjoyed the book.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

At times the epithet “clever” is used to belittle a novel’s worth. Certainly not in this case, for Atkinson’s cleverness plays an intricate role in Emotionally Weird’s theme of “just what is fiction.” A student in a class I taught commented after reading this book that the novel was having a dialogue with itself. That is perfectly correct. Everything--from the narrator Effie’s paper on Henry James’s assessment of Middlemarch as forsaking plot, to Nora’s urgent comments to hurry the plot along, to the various amateur novels being written by students and professors and others—works toward one large comment on fiction. And, happily, there is a plot and there are characters. A rather involved plot with a bang-up conclusion, and a cast of characters that all are absolutely hilarious in their portrayal. Effie, the narrator, is wonderfully sarcastic, as is her maybe-maybe not mother, Nora. And Chick, the detective? He and Professor Cousins in essence work a comedy tag team every time they appear. Want more? A lost yellow dog, murders, drugs, departmental politics, and a totally hilarious and scary dysfunctional family—Atkinson’s specialty. So. A woppingly clever novel that will keep you laughing even on second and third reads.

[Richard Seltzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely weird.
Some beautiful passages near the beginning. But the plot goes completely off the track, as the author herself admits: "I warned you. I told you right at the beginning that it would be a tale sos trange and tragic that you would think it wrought from a lurid and overactive imagination rather than real life." p. 324

Some of the promising lines from the beginning:
"Some people spend their whole lives looking for themselves, yet our self is the one thing we surely cannot lose ..." p. 11

"Terri grimaced and replaced her sunglasses and pulled on a black beret so that now she looked like a deranged governess engaged in guerrilla warfare.." p. 22

"The university was still managing to run its heating although no-one knew how -- perhaps they were burning books, or (more likely) students." p. 27

"Nothing will stop Archie talking, not even death probably, he will rumble on from the inside of his large coffin until the worms get fed up with the noise and eat his tongue..." p. 27

[Lesley Moseley · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW WOW WOW . How on earth have I not read this one before? Read most of all the others. As you can tell, I really enjoyed this one. I kept hoping for a Jabberwocky BY LEWIS CARROLL, reference or intersect. What a joy to be able to check with the online dictionary for most 'new to me' words, however the Scottish vernacular, 'not found'.. Such a treat from the PP's with their limited number of 'sight words'..
Perhaps not everybody's cup of char...

[elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book by one of my favorite authors. I want Professor Cousins to be my grandad and take me kite-flying. Brings back fond memories of Scotland and crime solving. Okay maybe just Scotland.

[Лерика · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книга очень странная. Очень-очень странная.
Настолько, что я сначала ничего не поняла. А потом кааак поняла)

Начну с того, что это точно путь ради пути, а не путь ради цели. Книга написана так наркотически-забористо, что голова кружилась знатно, а в середине очень хотелось отложить и больше ее не брать 😅

Сюжет в двух словах - дочь приезжает домой к матери и рассказывает об университетских буднях.

Ах да, в университете вечно кто-то пьет и наркоманится, тусит на вечеринках и ест странного лосося

Ах да, она учится на литературном, пишет роман, и все вокруг пишут роман, и мы вечно читаем их отрывки

Ах да, все романы влияют на жизнь, и можно спасти человека от смерти, испепелив страницу романа о его смерти

Ах да, старушки вокруг уверены, что кто-то пытается их убить, и таинственный детектив расследует это дело. Или нет?

Ах да, мать вечно чем-то недовольна, и героине все время приходится менять повествование на лету, чтобы ей угодить - то героя оставить в живых, потому что она привязалась. Или добавить событий, потому что скучно от описаний. Или лишних персонажей убрать

В общем, книга - без поллитра не разберёшься. А с поллитра - так вообще получится сюр похлеще Воннегута.

Если кратко - опишу так: если бы сниматься в Сообщество пришла Алиса с Шляпником и Шалтаем-Болтаем, а снимали в хижине Твин Пикса. Ну а финал очень напомнил Тринадцатую сказку. Дикая смесь)

[Iryna K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Кейт Аткінсон вкусив Роб-Гріє і вона написала книжку, в якій головна героїня сидить на холодному мокрому дикому острівці десь біля берегів Шотландії у фамільному будинку, який перебуває в процесі напіврозкладу, і розповідає своїй матері (яка їй насправді не мати) історію свого життя: навчання на філології, спроби писати роман, бойфренд-овоч, безумна подруга, бєссмислєнні потєряні одногрупники, занудні професори, одним словом, як каже її мати (яка насправді не мати), історія максимально нудна, абсурдна, з купою друго- і третьорядних персонажів, які мєльтєшать і яких неможливо запам'ятати, а головне - позбавлена всякого сенсу. Зовсім як життя.
Це книжка-матрьошка, де одна оповідь вкладена в іншу, а всередині ще одна, і ще оповіді другорядних персонажів, і (не головна) героїня бурчить на оповідачку, не персонажів, на погоду і життєві обставини, а також змушує оповідачку перегравати моменти, які їй не подобаються.
Книжка з тих, які автор_ки пишуть більше для себе, ніж для тих, хто читатиме: прямо відчувається, як Аткінсон хіхікала, коли писала деякі репліки.
Власне, це те, що мене дуже гріло під час читання - відчуття більш тісного контакту з авторкою, ніж від текстів з класичною лінійною структурою оповіді.
Поза цим в романі жизнєнна сатира на академію і дуже мила подруга головної героїні, яка намагається рятувати тварин (навіть тих, яких не треба рятувати), тож мені сподобалося.