Time was, a few years ago now, when I'd have gone so far as to call Kate Atkinson one of my favourite writers - I read Human Croquet, then Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and then Emotionally Weird, all during that time around the tailend of high school and the beginning of uni (Not the End of the World came a bit later, I think), and thought them all rather wonderful.
When Case Histories came out, though (2004 - was it really only two years ago?), I was disappointed. At the time, I thought it was quite a shift in genre from her earlier stuff (from whimsical family narratives to stolid crime investigation stories?), and it didn't grab me in the same way. Revisiting the novel now - taking a break from Against the Day, which I've been reading solidly for the last few weeks - I like and appreciate it more, and can better see how it connects up to Atkinson's work, both thematically and stylistically. One thing that Atkinson does marvellously is evoke the quiet sadness and spaces in everyday life - and this time I was able to appreciate Jackson's musical taste a bit more (he drives around listening to sad country songs about people leaving - "From Boulder To Birmingham" (mentioned twice!), Sweet Old World, Hell Among The Yearlings, etc). And boy can she write.
