Shrines of Gaiety: The Sunday Times Bestseller, May 2023

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Pungent with period detail sifted from contemporary accounts – the cocktails, the drugs, the clothes – Shrines of Gaiety sees Atkinson on her finest form since the chronological shenanigans of her Costa-winning sliding-doors saga Life After Life (2013). Because this is Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaiety blends wit, levity, a heady sense of things moving just a little too fast to control with deep tenderness, grace and vulnerability. Not all policemen in this book are easily bought, although some are proficient in profiting from the nefarious dealings of the underworld. This book is the Canadian edition of Shrines of gaiety which, apparently, has not suffered the usual rewording by editors for the North American market.

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson | Goodreads

I was excited to read about The Golden Age which was a glamorous period with fun, fabulous and even exotic characters. There's at least 5 plots, probably more like 8 or 10, which sounds unmanageable but it's surprisingly breezy. Life After Life” drove me batty…(most everyone in my local book club loved it) — but me — I couldn’t wait for the main protagonist to die….I highly recommend reading through this as it was full of more interesting details, and it made me want to know even more about Meyrick. The contrast is stark between the shiny dresses and silver sandals of the hostesses and the poverty in which they live, in tiny, dingy rooms. When Nellie is welcomed back to the bar at the Crystal Club, she notices someone at one of the tables.

Shrines of Gaiety: A Novel by Kate Atkinson, Paperback Shrines of Gaiety: A Novel by Kate Atkinson, Paperback

The wonder – as the noose tightens – is the suppleness that enables Atkinson to segue from scenes of pitch-dark horror to a brisk “what everyone did next” coda without sugar-coating the tale’s bitter kernel: it’s a peak performance of consummate control. 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.And through it all, the somewhat hysterical gaiety of the crowds is in full force as all are determined to forget the horror that was the Great War…. Gorgeously vivid, often strange and always very funny, it should cement her reputation as one of our finest novelists. This, and the other works, she consulted, paid off as Shrines of Gaiety is imbued with convincing period detail. DISCLOSURE: I own my copy of Shrines of Gaeity by Kate Atkinson, published by Transworld, Doubleday.

Shrines of Gaiety By Kate Atkinson | Used | 9781804991053 Shrines of Gaiety By Kate Atkinson | Used | 9781804991053

There were so many subplots which could have blossomed into a nice interlinked story but it did not materialise. She was always a delight to read:wit,clever plots, smart writing,so it saddens me to rate this one so low.He was short, just thirteen years old, and was jumping up and down in an effort to obtain a better view of whatever it was that had created the vaudeville atmosphere. A] glittering foray into London’s post-WWI Soho…Atkinson’s incisive prose and byzantine narrative elegantly excavate the deceit, depravity, and destruction of Nellie’s world. Her imagination and description are as vivid as ever, and 1926 London felt alive, vivid, lifeful, as if you can just go and visit there. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.