Lesley Glaister
Great Fun to Write
Lewis Carroll lurks behind and between the lines of Kate Atkinson’s third novel, Emotionally Weird. His influence is evident in several of the characters, which include one ‘small as a dormouse and almost entirely spherical’, and in the dialogue, which is peppered sneezily with Carroll-like observations: ‘“everything’s got a moral,” I said, “if only you can find it.”’
The ‘I’ is Effie, who wanders as wide-eyed and wondering as Alice herself – sometimes accompanied by a grinning yellow dog, a bumbling mad-hatterish professor, or a baby – through a series of obliquely surreal encounters and adventures. But are they, in fact, real?
Effie’s story – set in Dundee University during the early 1970s, a shivery version of Wonderland – is framed by a narrative in which she and Nora (who may or may not be her mother) are surviving on an abandoned island off the west coast of Scotland, ‘a speck of
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Surveillance, facial recognition and control: my review of @jonfasman's "We See It All" https://literaryreview.co.uk/watching-the-watchers via @Lit_Review
I reviewed Diary of a Film by Niven Govinden for @Lit_Review https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-directors-cut
'Retired judges have usually had long careers on the bench, during which they have acquired an ingrained reticence when it comes to speaking on controversial topics. Not so Sumption.'
Dominic Grieve reviews Jonathan Sumption's 'Law in a Time of Crisis'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-case-for-the-citizen