Human Croquet

Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson

After reading my third Kate Atkinson book (her second), it’s now official – Kate Atkinson is my new favorite author.  These stories are so rich, so bizarre, so unique, so sad, and yet so hilarious.  I found myself wanting to have a pencil and paper handy to jot down many of the humorous quips that seem to flow so effortlessly from her pen.  Maybe next time.

There are many similar elements between this book and her first, Scenes From a Museum.  The story is undoubtedly “British”, features a multitude of characters, is told across multiple generations, and is not a particularly happy read.  Actually, the story is a joy, it’s just the predicaments the characters are in are less than ideal. 

The story revolves around Isobel.  She’s about seventeen, rather unattractive, and living sometime in the late 1950s.  She lives with her brother Charles and her father Gordon in a house owned by Gordon’s mom, known mainly as “the widow”.  Of course, by the time we’re introduced to these characters, “the widow” as already died.  But, there are couple of other relatives in the house along with a border who is some sort of traveling salesman.  Note there is no Mom.  It seems Mom left the family many years ago when Isobel and Charles were very young.  There is a step mother, however.  Not that this really matters to the kids

Isobel doesn’t have too happy of an existence.  The bulk of this story revolves around Isobel’s yearning for her mother.  Who was she?  Where is she now?  Why did she leave us?  Most of the grownups don’t care to talk about her mother.  Her name is/was Eliza.

What author Kate Atkinson does so well in her books, is she moves around in time so we know more of the “whole story”.  We’re taken back to when Eliza and Gordon were married and “the widow” was still alive.  It is often said that young marrieds shouldn’t live in their mother/mother-in-law’s house.  This story is a perfect illustration as to why.  So we see the young family along with all the trials and tribulations.  We see how/why Eliza left.  We’re not surprised.  After Eliza leaves, Gordon (the dad) leaves as well.  I won’t go into why, nor how, but it seems he might be gone for good as well.  So young Isobel and Charles now live with “the widow” and their morbid Aunt Ginny.  Talk about a miserable existence.   This was the one area of the book where the humor, unfortunately, didn’t quite cover the sadness I was feeling for the children.  “The widow” and Aunt Ginny aren’t fun people to be around.  I remember one exchange:

Eliza: Why don’t we ever have fun in this family?
Ginny: “Fun” don’t get the wash done!

The family in this story are actual descendants from a clan known as “The Fairfax” family.  Author Kate Atkinson begins the book telling the long, sordid history of this clan from centuries ago.  It seems as though this family is rather cursed.  Not surprisingly, by the time we meet the modern day characters, the curse has not been lifted by any means.

I only mention this because there are parts of the book where Isobel experiences strange, out-of-body, and time-travel episodes.  They’re small, brief interludes, and we’re inclined to ask “Were these real? Or is Isobel losing her marbles?”  There are even episodes where Isobel lives the same day over and over again a few times – each radically different, but each with less than desirable outcomes.  Ultimately, the story is so well told that you don’t really care whether these events are real (i.e. existing in some parallel universe) or the result of a bizarre hallucination.  I can see where many authors might seriously bumble episodes such as this, yet with Atkinson, everything runs very smoothly, and the fact that these events may or may not have happened is mostly irrelevant.

On a final note, there actually is a game called Human Croquet.  It’s mostly played like the standard game, only using humans instead of balls that are whacked through hoops, run into each other, and cause destinies to be unfurled in ways unexpected.  This book, nor this author, is for everyone, but I imagine many, like myself, would simply love this story.