Rating: 
Summary: By far one of the best books I've ever read
Review: I came across this unassuming-looking book while in London. I asked what was good over there and the saleslady put this in my hands. I couldn't put it down. One of the most remarkable things about the story is the cyclical format that takes you back to the past like an undertow, then shoots you back into Ruby's time. However, I did find the "lost memory" of her lost twin a little new-age hammy. Still, I recommend it every chance I get.
Rating: 
Summary: Complex Story Told Well
Review: This book brings home the fact that my parents and grandparents were once young and faced decisions and problems just like I do now. It's sometimes hard to think of your elders as people with a past -- a past that led to you. I especially liked the parts about the generation that lived during WWI -- the chapter on the war was quite, quite good. I was disappointed by the last few chapters. It felt very rushed, like the author was trying to make a deadline. When I got to the chapter about Pearl, I almost gave up as that whole incident was implausible, compared to the rest of the book. Otherwise, it was a complex story told well. Some great characters (Bunty, Patricia, Gillian, Ruby) and some not so well developed but enjoyable nonetheless. I also like the chapter layout -- the diversity kept up the interest.
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Summary: I loved this book!
Review: Ruby Lennox is an extrordinary character in an exceptional book. I enjoyed it so much, even when I was crying! Even though generations of this family are dysfunctional you don't feel "weighed down" or depressed after reading this book. I can't wait to read Kate's second book, Human Croquet.
Rating:
Summary: Just plain fantastic
Review: The book achieves everything it sets out to be -- funny, smart, innovative and moving. The author has written characters that are delightfully fresh and wholly realized. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to read more by the author.
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Summary: This book reinvents the novel; it is a wild read.
Review: This twisted tale of the ties that bind families will take you places you've never been before. It is fresh, unexpected, thought-provoking , funny and painful in turns. I have shared it with many friends, and without exception, they have thoroughly enjoyed it. A treat for people who like a good read.
Rating:
Summary: amazing, amazing, amazing
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. I've been carrying it around with me, showing to all my friends and recommending that they read it, too. It's magical, magnificent, a very great, important piece of writing. Although the story revolves around Ruby and her family, the lives of her maternal great-grandmother, grandmother and mother are woven into the story so that in effect, the there two books here: Ruby and pre-Ruby. Several reviewers have described this novel as "one of the funniest books to come out of Britain in years (The NY Times Book Review) and as "comic" (Boston Sunday Globe) and while Behind the Scenes is enormously charming, inventive and endearing, don't buy this expecting it to be a funny or humorous book. At times it is unbearably sad, sadness tinged with dark scamperings of horror. I was telling my husband about this book and he kept saying, "this sounds awful, terrible things keep happening to these people," ! and while that is true, the author tells this story with a beautiful lightness that keeps Ruby safe despite her sadness. One thing I found very interesting about this book was the way the women's lives went from the unending drudgery of cooking, cleaning, mending, pregnancy and taking care of numerous children by Alice, the great-grandmother who lived in rural 19th century England, to the comparatively empty days of Bunty, Ruby's mother, days that are filled up with a dedication to housekeeping that only mimics what was once a necessity of life. Alice lived in a world where the failure to bake bread and to keep up with darning and mending meant that children went hungry and cold in winter. Bunty lives in a world attached to a strict household schedule (washing on Monday, ironing on Tuesday, cleaning on Wednesday, etc) and where store-bought cakes and cookies are looked upon as evidence of a slatternly nature. Another interesting this about this book is the way Ruby's! voice changes from when she is little to when she grows up! . Little Ruby is consumed with magical thinking, she believes in a world of ghosts where things happen for no reason and a deck of cards designed to teach the alphabet become a wondrous bridge to life away from home. As she grows, her voice takes on depth and the effects of secondary school and while the frivolity and delightful silliness that characterize little Ruby's world continue to exist, they are moderated by her maturity. This is a truly wonderful book.
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Summary: Interesting structure, unflinching look at "plan B" lives.
Review: I chose this book for our book club based upon reader's reviews. While I enjoyed the book I didn't find any of the humor referenced in the reviews. Instead the summation of the book's tone is in one of the final chapters defining Bunty's version of love and mothering as autistic - an autism we readers have keenly witnessed through all the pages. This is a sharp, realistic read with no veneer. I felt so much sadness for Ruby and wished for more pages of exultation at the novel's end to celebrate her knowledge that she is "Ruby Lennox, a precious jewel." For a humorous, more joyful exploration of dysfunctional families and the imprint they make on lives I recommend The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've read recently.
Review: This book was brilliant. The way that at every section a little bit of information is revealed to keep you guessing and a clue to another mystery of the family is introduced. I just couldn't put this book down. I loved the way she described the present in one chapter and then went back to the past.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkably good novel (that happens to be author's first)
Review: This is a tremendously good read. Atkinson spans generations with a thoughtful and ambitious narrative that cares for it's characters.
In some ways, it reminded me of the writing of E. Annie Proulx, although I find this novel much more accessible and satisfying than Proulx' works such as Accordion Crimes.
Thoroughly recommended, and involving to the end
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Summary: Well done, Ruby!
Review: I discovered Kate Atkinson through her second novel, _Human Croquet_. I quite enjoyed it, but it was my 13-yr-old daughter who liked it so much that she later picked up Atkinson's debut novel about Ruby Lennox and her far-flung family. My kid has solid instincts! Both novels explore dysfunctional families through the eyes of the children stranded in those families. Both narratives are marked by sudden chronological shifts and reveal information that the narrators realistically don't have access to; through this device Atkinson raises interesting questions about the nature of memory, of time, of family itself. I think _Behind the Scenes... is the better book. Certainly it is more consistent in tone, very funny, but with the humor of a survivor, looking back over years of neglect, emotional abuse, deceit, outright tragedy, and, above all, years of (almost) unremitting bleakness. The characters are well drawn, and even the most repugnant of them is worthy of some sympathy. That Atkinson can relate all this and make it so incredibly readable is a testament to her talent. Although I occasionally found her sentence structure irksome, that is a minor quibble, especially when one considers the images she is able to create in just a few words, as when Ruby is trying to reconcile her idea of what love is with the "autistic motherhood" of Bunty. Ruby has been talking about her mother off and on for several hundred pages, but this phrase, in the last few pages of the novel, sums up perfectly that part of Bunty's character that was most important to Ruby. A good read; I recommend it.
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