I read Normal Rules Don’t Apply within weeks of finally catching up with Atkinson’s last novel, Shrines of Gaiety, a book I liked so much I came to this all but surfing on a wave of Kate Atkinson-generated euphoria. Whilst it’s fair to say I didn’t quite like it as much as I liked the aforementioned Shrines, some of that is down to the fact these books are different beasts (the former a chunky and immersive novel, the latter slightly less than a dozen short stories each of which could not be said to really be linked but each of which coyly flirts with the other, as if the stories were all themselves simultaneously being told by a harem of gossipy old ladies who, in their tellings, were picking up various bits of other stories being told in the tent).
We are firmly in the realm of ‘what if?’ (hell, one of the stories is even called ‘What if?”).
In the beginning was ‘The Void’; or rather, the void from which all Biblical life began, returns, at various intervals, and if you’re out of the house, you’re a goner. It becomes a new way of living. There’s a sense in which you can read the rest of the book as if the Void is ongoing (and in some stories that is made explicit).
In ‘Dogs in Jeopardy’, we meet Franklin who has been “betting on losers all afternoon”. We get a guided tour through his life and learn a lot (including the fact that Franklin once wrote a novel called ‘What If?’). He’s a bright one. Gives an idea for a literary role playing game to his two geeky friends. Before we bid adieu to Franklin we meet both a talking horse and a talking dog. Be prepared, at all times, for the unexpected and you won’t be disappointed.
‘Blithe Spirit’ concerns a ghost called Mandy who was formerly an assistant to a junior minister in the Department of Health. A mild tale of political upheaval (we say ‘mild’ but it obviously involves the death of our narrator) unravels against a backdrop of otherworldly happy endings (what is murder when set against an ever replenishing bowl of peaches and a suitor in a tricorn hat?).
‘Spellbound’ you’ll by this point not be surprised to learn is an out and out fairy tale (of a Queen who rules over a Queendom but would like a child), albeit shot through with the kind of playful literary tongue in cheekiness you’d expect from the likes of Angela Carter.
Franklin returns in ‘The Indiscreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ – he’s a younger man than previously and he’s in love, so he thinks, with a well-off sort called Connie. It’s a part one, if you will, to ‘Classic Crime Quest 17 – Crime and Punishment’, which appears later – resolving the love story into a crime story with a twist. But even that isn’t the end of Franklin – we meet him again before the book bows out, in the company of a character from ‘Spellbound’. You’ll want to pay attention as you go.
What else, what else, what else? Well, there’s ‘Shine, Pamela! Shine!’, in which an ageing divorcee becomes pregnant without conception. At one point, Pamela thinks:
“If anything, it was like a fairytale. An old queen who wished for a daughter so much that she went to a witch to find a spell.”
Yes, you will want to tick off the connections on an imaginary Kate Atkinson bingo card as you go.
‘Existential Marginalization’ is Atkinson’s version of Toy Story (we’ll just about forgive her using Z instead of S). ‘Gene-sis’ is a frothy version of the history of the world if the bearded avuncular God stepped aside in favour of a woman (how would things be different? Read the story and find out). ‘Puppies and Rainbows’ yet one more twist of the helix, centring on a Hollywood actress who cameos in the soap opera that Franklin is involved with.
This is Atkinson in playful mode (when isn’t she in playful mode you might ask, one way or another). If you yourself don’t have a playful mode (if you are Graeme Chapman’s Colonel for instance), you might get a mite frustrated with all of the silliness.
Any Cop?: It’s a fun book of short stories. It’s playful. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s an intelligent entertainment. A frivolous froth. We think it probably asks the reader not to be so serious too. We’re ok with that.
Bookmunch 