This is Kate Atkinson’s debut novel set mainly in York, telling a story of a family through calamities of the XXth century. All main characters are women, while the narrator, an unreliable one, is the latest grown female of the clan.
The novel deals with the topics of memory, history and reality, both objective and subjective. For me though, it is primarily a novel about women and their choices or the ability and freedom to make them, mainly the choice of having children and living a life they really want to have. I felt a lot of anger and sadness while reading The Scenes, and lack of motherly love, all hidden behind irony that gives the book a false sense of lightness.
A stunning debut. I’m now curious about the author’s other creations.