I’ll never forget the first time I read Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (yes, I’ve read this book once before, but dammit it deserves to be celebrated), book one in the Jackson Brodie series. I finished the lyrically scintillating first chapter and called my wife Charlotte on the way to work and said, “I have never read anything like this book before. This woman, Kate Atkinson, is writing prose that reads like poetry, except understandable.” And indeed she does.
Kate Atkinson
Rating: A+
I recently decided to re-read Case Histories and Atkinson’s subsequent three novels in preparation for the eagerly anticipated fifth novel in the series, Big Sky, which was just released and is now sitting on our media council, staring me down, taunting me, waiting for me to finish so I can dive in to find out what Jackson is up to.
And while Jackson Brodie is our main character and driving force through the series, he is not remotely a dominating character. While most books in the detective genre follow the main character page by page, or at the least heavily tipping the scales, Ms. Atkinson is not afraid to have her main character play a supporting role.
Case Histories starts off with three profoundly effective chapters, the first details a completely unimaginable situation for one to be saddled with, the second is so emotionally gut wrenching it may leave you feeling sick to your stomach, and the third is, thankfully, pitch black and darkly hilarious, each taking place at different points in history, and each leading to a criminal case. Oooh! See what happened there?
Jackson Brodie arrives forty-five pages into the book and brings us into the present. We quickly learn that Jackson is incredibly smart, witty and sarcastic, and also bitter, cynical and maybe a bit lazy. He’s a detested ex-husband, a brilliant and loving father to a daughter ahead of her years, and a reluctantly charming English detective who loves female American country musicians.
Jackson is everything we desire in a main character; he is attractive, enigmatic, funny and honorable. For me, he is a guy I would love to hang out with, or maybe want to help out with a case. For Charlotte, he is a major literarily crush that she would consider being with if it weren’t for me.
The cases from history (there we are again!), dating back ten, twenty-five and thirty-four years, all find their way into Jackson’s life in one way or another, and the journey is one of the most pleasurable reads I’ve ever had in my life. Ms. Atkinson lets every character have their moment in the spotlight, their tumultuous worlds weaving around Jackson’s. Her words and passages flow and work like some lexical massage; her humor is witty, dry and constant, and the culmination of each of these stories is heartfelt and genuine.
Case Historiesis one of the very best novels of the 21stCentury, and regardless of your preferred genre, if you enjoy reading, this is a book you must add to your list.
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