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Not the End of the World by [Kate Atkinson]

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Kate Atkinson

Not the End of the World Kindle Edition

by Kate Atkinson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Arthur is a precocious eight-year-old boy whose mother is a B-list celebrity more concerned with the state of her bank account than with her son's development. Then an enigmatic young nanny named Missy introduces him to a world he never knew existed.

Print length

266 pages
Language

English
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Publisher

Back Bay Books
Publication date

May 5, 2009
File size

3008 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Atkinson, who began her career with Behind the Scenes at the Museum, a Whitbread Book of the Year, and enjoyed good reviews for two more novels, now gathers together this suite of comparatively loosely connected stories. Atkinson's work has grown increasingly diffuse; her most recent book, Emotionally Weird, was printed in three fonts, representing separate strings of narrative. This collection takes that conceit without the typesetting extravagance one step further, opening and closing on two women who seem to tell one another the intervening tales. Atkinson's Scheherazades, singletons of indeterminate age named Charlene and Trudi, appear first in "a food hall as vast as a small city," and by the book's end which may or may not be the end of the world they're starving to death in a squalid, freezing flat in what feels like an apocalyptic present. In the women's restless imaginations, readers meet more than one girlfriend (in different stories, and each unbeknownst to the other) of a man named Hawk; a gaggle of perfect-toothed American Zane sisters; and a governess who may or may not be a goddess. Some of Atkinson's devices a giant cat who impregnates a woman with kittens, an evil twin who gets to have all the fun make for stories as simple as fables, but some, like the nanny goddess and the virtuoso, multiple-voiced "Dissonance," are sharp and memorable, full of astutely observed family dynamics. While not as intense or as unified as Atkinson's full-length work, this is a sharp and wholly original collection.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

"Those who already know Kate Atkinson's brilliant novels won't be surprised to find that her richly peopled stories are shot through with the same exhilarating disregard for decorum, the same scintillating wit and wisdom. NOT THE END OF THE WORLD is an exuberant, vivid, and hugely readable collection." --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

A stunning collection of thoughtful and highly readable short stories by Whitbread Award-winner, Kate Atkinson.

This is a daring, witty and provocative collection of twelve thematically-linked stories.

Inspired by Ovid?s Metamorphoses or, if you prefer, by Prada, Mary Poppins, Moschino and Barbie, these are stories of abandoned children and lonely adults, the seductiveness of our consumer society and fatalism in a post-Apocalyptic world.

From Charlene and Trudi, shopping madly while bombs explode outside, to gormless Eddie, a cataloguer of fish, and Meredith Zane who has discovered the secret to eternal life, each story brings to life a startling cast of characters. Linking the stories is an exploration of the infinite variety of ways in which people attempt to change the world around them, and themselves. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1

CHARLINE AND TRUDI GO SHOPPING

I want,' Charlene said to Trudi, 'to buy my mother a birthday present.'

'OK,' Trudi said.

'Something I can put in the post. Something that won't break.'

Trudi thought about some of the things you could put in the post that might break:

A crystal decanter.
A fingernail.
An egg.
A heart.
A Crown Derby teapot.
A promise.
A mirrored-glass globe in which nothing but the sky is reflected.

'How about a scarf?' she suggested. 'In velvet dévoré. I love that word. Dévoré.'

Charlene and Trudi were in a food hall as vast as a small city. It smelt of chocolate and ripe cheese and raw meaty bacon but most of the food was too expensive to buy and some of it didn't look real. They wandered along an avenue of honey.

'I could buy a jar of honey,' Trudi said.

'You could,' Charlene agreed.

There was plenty of honey to choose from. There was lavender honey and rosemary honey, acacia and orange blossom and mysterious manuka. Butter-yellow honey from Tuscan sunflowers and thick, anaemic honey from English clover. There were huge jars like ancient amphorae and neat spinster-sized pots. There were jars of cut-comb honey that looked like seeded amber. There was organic honey from lush South American rainforests and there was honey squeezed from parsimonious Scottish heather on windswept moorlands. Bees the world over had been bamboozled out of their bounty so that Trudi could have a choice, but she had already lost interest.
'You could buy her soap,' Trudi said. 'Soap wouldn't break. Expensive soap. Made from oatmeal and buttermilk or goat's milk and vanilla pods from . . . wherever vanilla pods come from.'

'Mauritius. Mainly,' Charlene said.

'If you say so. Soap for which ten thousand violet petals have been crushed and distilled to provide one drop of oil. Or soap scented with the zest of a hundred bittersweet oranges.'

'I'm hungry. I could buy an orange,' Charlene said.

'You could. Seville or Moroccan?'

'Moorish,' Charlene said dreamily. 'I would like to visit a Moorish palace. The Alhambra. That's an exotic word. That's the most exotic word I can think of, offhand. Alhambra.'

'Xanadu,' Trudi said. 'That's exotic. A pleasure dome. Imagine having your own pleasure dome. You could call it Pleasureland. Isn't there a Pleasureland in Scarborough?'

'Arbroath,' Charlene said gloomily.

'With shady walks through cool gardens,' Trudi said, 'where the air is perfumed with attar of roses.'
'And fountains and courtyards,' Charlene said. 'Fountains that run with nectar. And courtyards full of peacocks and nightingales and larks. And swans. And gold and silver fish swimming in the fountains. And huge blue and white marbled carp.'

They were walking down a street of teas. They were lost.

'Who would think there were so many different teas in the world?' Trudi mused. 'Chrysanthemum tea, White Peony, Jade Peak, Oriental Beauty Oolong, Green Gunpowder, Golden Needle, Hubei Silver Tip, Drum Mountain White Cloud, Dragon's Breath tea — do you think it tastes of dragon's breath? What do you think dragon's breath tastes like?'

'Foul, I expect,' Charlene said. 'And all day long,' she continued, 'in the pleasure dome-'

'Pleasureland,' Trudi corrected.

'Pleasureland. We would eat melon and figs and scented white peaches and Turkish Delight and candied rose petals.'

'And drink raspberry sherbet and tequila and Canadian ice wine,' Trudi enthused.

'I should go,' Charlene said. She had failed to recover her spirits since the mention of Arbroath. 'I've got an article to write.' Charlene was a journalist with a bridal magazine. 'Ten Things To Consider Before You Say "I Do".'

'Saying "I Don't"?' Trudi suggested.

'Abracadabra,' Charlene murmured to herself as she crossed against the traffic in the rain, 'that's an exotic word.' Somewhere in the distance a bomb exploded softly.

It had been raining for weeks. There were no taxis outside the radio station. Charlene was worried that she was developing a crush on the man who searched her handbag in the reception at the radio station.

'I know he's quite short,' she said to Trudi, 'but he's sort of manly.'

'I once went out with a short man,' Trudi said. 'I never realized just how short he was until after I'd left him.' There were no taxis at the rank. There were no taxis dropping anyone off at the radio station.

Trudi frowned. 'When did you last see a taxi?'

Charlene and Trudi ran from the radio station, ran from the rain, past the sandbags lining the streets, into the warm, dispassionate space of the nearest hotel and sat in the smoky lounge and ordered tea.

'I think he's ex-military or something.'

'Who?'

'The man who searches the bags at the radio station.'

A waitress brought them weak green tea. They sipped their tea daintily — an adverb dictated by the awkward handles of the cups.

'I've always wanted to go out with a man in a uniform,' Trudi said.

'A fireman,' Charlene suggested.

'Mm,' Trudi said thoughtfully.

'Or a policeman,' Charlene said.

'But not a constable.'

'No, not a constable,' Charlene agreed. 'An inspector.'

'An army captain,' Trudi said, 'or maybe a naval helicopter pilot.'

The weak green tea was bitter.

'This could be Dragon's Breath tea, for all we know,' Trudi said. 'Do you think it is? Dragon's breath?'

There was no air in the hotel. Two large, middle-aged women were eating scones with quiet determination. A well-known journalist was seducing a girl who was too young. Two very old men were speaking in low pleasant tones to each other about music and ancient wars.

'Thermopylae,' the men murmured. 'Aegospotami, Cumae. The "Dissonant Quartet".'

'I really want a cat,' Trudi said.

'You can't keep a cat in town,' Charlene said.

'You can't keep a cat down?'

'You can't keep a cat in town.'

'You can.'

'You need something small like a rodent,' Charlene said.

'A capybara's a rodent, it's not small.'

'A hamster,' Charlene said, 'a gerbil, a small white mouse.'

'I don't want a rodent. Of any size. I want a cat. Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty. If you say something five times you always get it.'

'You made that up,' Charlene said.

'True,' Trudi admitted.

'I'd like something more unusual,' Charlene said. 'A kangaroo. A reindeer or an otter. A talking bird or a singing fish.'

'A singing fish?'

'A singing fish. A fish that sings and has a magic ring in its stomach. A huge carp that is caught in a fishpond — usually at a royal court somewhere — and cooked and served at the table and when you bite into the fish you find a magic ring. And the magic ring will lead you to the man who will love you. Or the small white mouse which is the disguise of the man who will love you.'

'That would be a rodent then.'

'Failing that,' Charlene continued, ignoring Trudi, 'I would like a cat as big as a man.'

'A cat as big as a man?' Trudi frowned, trying to picture a man-sized cat.

'Yes. Imagine if men had fur.'

'I think I'd rather not.'

The waitress asked them if they wanted more of the weak green tea.

'For myself,' the waitress said, uninvited, 'I prefer dogs.' Charlene and Trudi swooned with delight at the idea of dogs.

'Oh God,' Trudi said, overcome by all the breeds of dog in the world, 'a German Shepherd, a Golden Retriever, a Great Dane, a Borzoi — what a great word — a St Bernard, a Scottie, a Westie, a Yorkie. An Austrian Pinscher, a Belgian Griffon, a Kromfohrlanders. The Glen of Imaal Terrier, the Manchester, Norwich, English Toy, Staffordshire, Bedlington - all terriers also. The Kai, the Podengo Portugueso Medio, the Porcelaine and the Spanish Greyhound. The Bloodhound, the Lurcher, the Dunker, the Catahoula Leopard Dog, the Hungarian Vizsla, the Lancashire Heeler and the Giant German Spitz!'

'Or a mongrel called Buster or Spike,' Charlene said.

The waitress cleared away their tea things. 'Money, money, money, money, money,' she whispered to herself as she bumped open the door to the kitchen with her hip. The electricity failed and everyone was suddenly very quiet. No one had realized how dark the rain had made the afternoon. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Booklist

Although they don't carry quite the emotional weight of George Saunders' brilliant stories (CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, 1996), Atkinson's exceptionally entertaining tales display the same wild inventiveness. Sometimes the same characters and images (she is especially fond of wolf-skin gloves and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) recur in the 12 stories collected here, which, in the main, feature delightfully witty people marshaling their resources to confront a world that often disappoints. In "Unseen Translation," a nanny who resembles a "Marine Corps Mary Poppins" spirits eight-year-old Arthur away from his wealthy, neglectful parents. In the more somber "Sheer Big Waste of Love," Addison Fox, whose mother was a prostitute, carries with him the memory of being violently rejected by his wealthy father; however, an encounter with the man's legitimate children makes him realize things could have been much worse. Other titles feature people coping with the end of the world by going shopping and a woman killed in a car wreck who finds she is invisible, housebound, and addicted to Oprah. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Back Cover

“Moving and funny and crammed with incidental wisdom.” -- Sunday Times --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Kate Atkinson was born in New York and now lives in Edinburgh. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, was named Whitbread Book of the Year in the U.K. in 1995 and was followed by Human Croquet and Emotionally Weird. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0028MVH3C
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Back Bay Books (May 5, 2009)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 5, 2009
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3008 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 266 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #332,412 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #50 in Contemporary British & Irish Literature
- #286 in Literary Short Stories
- #438 in British & Irish Literary Fiction

Customer Reviews:
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Kate Atkinson is an international bestselling novelist, as well as playwright and short story writer. She is the author of Life After Life; Transcription; Behind the Scenes at the Museum, a Whitbread Book of the Year winner; the story collection Not the End of the World; and five novels in the Jackson Brodie crime series, which was adapted into the BBC TV show Case Histories.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

675 global ratings

5 star		52%
4 star		27%
3 star		15%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Clem

Atkinson on acid?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 28, 2014

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I’ve stated this in other reviews of this author’s work, but it bears repeating - Kate Atkinson is not for everyone. This is true especially of this book. This is a collection of short stories. Stories that, in many cases, seem unfinished or without purpose. Some are truly bizarre. You will be scratching your head quite a bit as you finish these stories. What was that all about? You ask yourself. Only at the end of the book do things start to slowly, finally, make sense.

Although you quite often feel disconnected, story wise, Atkinson’s main hook is her unique way with words. So even though you’re not really sure where she’s going in many cases, she still manages to hook you in with her humorous, offbeat, yet somewhat depressing tales. After reading five books by this author, I’m now convinced that she’ll never tell a happy story about happy people in any sort of happy situations. This just isn’t her style. Her main characters are quite often miserable in whatever existence they find themselves thrown in. Most of the father figures and leading men are twits, and very few people in these pages believe in any sort of God, so they plod on day to day with sullen faces, hoping against hope that their fortunes will somehow miraculously turn. Alas, they seldom ever do.

A major drawback to these short stories, ironically, is the fact that they all seem to end too quickly. Every one of these stories seemed to suggest that, had the author wanted, she could have fleshed each of these tales out into a full novel. One wishes she had. See, even though the characters are quite downtrodden, Atkinson has such a humorous way of dealing with these characters that you tend to literally laugh out loud as you’re reading.

The short story bit was a nice idea, but I’m glad that she elected to go back to telling full length stories after this one was released. If you’ve never read one of this author’s works, I implore you to start out with one of her full length books first (her first two were brilliant, I haven’t made may way around to reading most of the latter stuff). If you truly enjoy her bizarre style, there’s a good chance you’ll like this quirky diversion she presents here.

20 people found this helpful

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KC

The tantalizing promise of things to come

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 23, 2013

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Prior to reading this collection of stories (which ultimately stand united, so clever is the subtle interweaving), I read Atkinson's latest novel "Life After Life (2013)," with which "Not the End of the World (2002)" shares a thematic thread: a musing on "what if?" Although close attention is required in both works as earlier characters make reappearances, "World" carried me along with magnetic attraction. Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels, which brought her to greater recognition, stand at the top of their genre, but her works of this other variety display her big guns: erudition, wit, a gift for surprise, rich and fluid prose style, quirky but believable characters, and a structural overview that makes her a firm-handed master of each universe she creates. In her NYT review of "Life After Life," Francine Prose observed that "Atkinson sharpens our awareness of the apparently limitless choices and decisions that a novelist must make on every page, and of what is gained and lost when the consequences of these choices are, like life, singular and final." That observation applies to these stories as well. In retrospect they might be considered the tiny acorns from which a mighty novel grew.

14 people found this helpful

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Andrea Burrows

As expected!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 28, 2021

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The book came quickly, was in good condition, and is delicious Kate Atkinson, as always! I love here use of language and her quirky stories.

One person found this helpful

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Betsy

Very interesting stories

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 11, 2021

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I liked everything about it. This is a new author, for me. I’m reading another of her books next. Highly recommended!

One person found this helpful

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J. Lawson

Kate Atkinson strikes again

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 4, 2013

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Earlier this year my book club read Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum and I was amazed with that book. I consider it one of the best books I have read in the last 20 years. Since then I have read 6 more of her books and I have loved every one of them. Four of the 7 books have featured a retired policeman, Jackson Brodie, so they may be classified as crime novels but their literary quality puts them in another class altogether. Atkinson's books tend to deal with dark subjects but the humor and the vividly drawn characters leave the reader exhilarated. She writes sentences that are absolute jewels.

12 people found this helpful

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Diana R.

Another Kate Atkinson Winner!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 2, 2013

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I find Kate Atkinson's books refreshing in a style that pulls the reader into the characters' mindset and invites one to experience a myriad of emotions. She develops each character through a series of stories that are ultimately related as she spins the tale. "Not the End of the World" tells the story of an actress mother, her son and a nanny, their experiences and the inter-relationships that develop. I highly recommend.

One person found this helpful

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Liz Smith

The Apocalypse

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 16, 2020

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One of the strangest books that I have read. Each story feeds into, or correlates with, the next. The book was a depressing read. Perhaps because of the pandemic that the world is currently experiencing, I suppose.

2 people found this helpful

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Alice Kaufman

Kate Rules

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 2, 2012

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Kate Atkinson is my favorite author, and this book of short stories is excellent. I've read it several times, and was inspired to to purchase it for my Kindle when I was Turkey and saw an Artemis-related ruin. I immediately thought of my favorite story in this collection about Missy (Artemis)as a governess in contemporary London. As in all Atkinson's work, minor characters become major characters, and everybody seems to connect with everybody is always surprising ways. Thanks, Kate, for adding a layer of depth to an already wonderful expedience.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

The Cats Mother

FASCINATING , BAFFLING, CHALLENGING AND SATISFYINGLY WEIRD .

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 10, 2017

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You have to be in the Kate Atkinson mindset to truly understand this book .
Its not really a collection of short stories - well, it is , but if you can't get your head around it, then read the first and last chapters again ( miss out the rest ) after your initial reading and all will be revealed and become perfectly clear (hopefully) .
Make use of your Google Latin to English translator if you don't read Latin like a native - understanding those phrases will help you understand the book itself .
Someone who gave it one star thought the quotations from Ovid, Emily Dickinson, St Paul et al. were "pretentious" but they are gateways to further reading , and this, further knowledge . I love books that take me on journeys through other books - knowledge gathering is never wasted .
It's challenging reading but if you set yourself up at the beginning ( I didn't and had to re-read it twice before I clicked on) the way I have suggested , you will find it sad, funny poignant and ultimately a bit terrifying .
Its not Jackson Brodie territory so be prepared if you love JB and Kate's writing - its quirkier , more like "Human Croquet" .

I love everything she writes - sometimes , its challenging stuff but ultimately , Kate Atkinson is never, ever boring !

10 people found this helpful

the honest shopper

A mixed bag

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 30, 2013

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I've read all of Kate Atkinson's books as I adore her writing style, wit and beautiful story telling but this collection of short stories is my least favourite by far!
Some of the stories were great but ended just as I was getting into them, they left me wanting more, where as others were just dull and didn't grab me at all. I guess that is the nature of the short story though! It takes a lot of skill to hook your reader in a short space of time and if they are left wanting more you have done a good job, but I actually like it when a short story wraps things up nicely, it is more comforting to know how things end. Some of these felt like the end of a chapter, rather than the end of the story and that annoyed me. It felt like a group of ideas which she just didn't explore further.
I had no idea that the characters were linked until I read some of these reviews! I guess it didn't grab me enough to pay attention. Admittedly I didn't get any of the mythology references either (I'm not a complete philistine, just uneducated, but admittedly it went way over my head!)
I think Kate Atkinson's strongest point all round is the complexity of her characters and there just wasn't the time to explore them in this so I was a little disappointed.
In fairness I am not a huge sci fi/ fantasy fan but I do love it when reality meets fantasy, that is a genre that can be extremely satisfying and fascinating to explore. But I ended up only enjoying about a third of this book and I found myself reluctantly trudging through it rather than hankering for the next chapter, as I do with the rest of her books!
I think you really have to enjoy short stories to be able to get through this book and maybe know your stuff when it comes to Greek Mythology!

6 people found this helpful

Ms. Mary Smith

Fantastic stories

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 13, 2011

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I really enjoy Kate Atkinson's writing, especially the Jackson Brodie novels. When I started this I wasn't sure what to make of the first story. I'm glad I read on because it is a marvellous collection taking inspiration from Greek mythology, the Apocalypse - even Buffy the vampire slayer.

The stories are linked so we meet up some of the characters in different stories, sometimes only with a name check, sometimes with a role to play. The same central characters from the first story appear in the last one creating a complete circle. One of Atkinson's strengths is her characterisation and this is as true in the short stories as in her novels with an eclectic and engaging cast. The stories are playful, darkly witty and fantastic (in the true sense of the word) with touches of laugh-out-loud humour.

As others have said, though, she does not provide neat endings with all loose ends tied up - but the stories provide wonderful entertainment, which I, for one, will enjoy re-reading. Mary Smith author of No More Mulberries

4 people found this helpful

Terri R

Meh

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 8, 2018

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I'm being generous giving this book 3 stars because I love all of Kate Atkinson's other books, and because I fully appreciate her style, and the time it took her to put these stories together. But I found everything but Wedding Favours to be too too fanciful at the end of the story. Given how much everything seemed to be written in a non-fantasy style she just seemed to get bored and throw in a silly ending. This book is not for me, but I am looking forward to reading Transcription later this year.

One person found this helpful

Mike Roach.

Very disturbingly real

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 18, 2019

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I found some of these stories hard to read, particularly the Rebecca/Simon ones. How awful children can be...how awful I was as a child. That was a bit depressing. Missy and Arthur were wonderful though...that's the sort of fantasy I like!

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