It's cheating to say I read this book, but Goodreads doesn't have a way of taking it off my Reading shelf without calling it Read. So, I read about 80 pages of this and abandoned it. I was never drawn in and I actively avoided reading it. Disappointing, as I count some of Kate Atkinson's books among the best I've ever read. Oh well, onward.

While I read a lot of reviews that didn't care for this book, I found the interspersing of post-modern analysis, university-life literary analysis, strange male characters who aren't a threat, and a backstory the mother doesn't want to reveal to be a lot of fun, and very interesting. Easy to put down and pick back up, I was able to keep track of all the characters because they were so vivid. Really enjoyed it. ( )

This is a book of stories: The stories we tell ourselves. The stories we tell each other. The stories we create to entertain. I think this is the last of Atkinson's novels, so far, that I hadn't yet read, and I wonder what I would've thought about it had I read it before her more recent efforts. She has a way with words, especially metaphors and similes, both on full display here. And it feels, to me, like a precursor for her more complex storytelling of Life After Life (which for some reason I didn't review here -- at least, I can't find a review for it here), which explored alternate versions of reality.

The stories here are the ones Effie and her mother, Nora (who isn't her mother), tell while holed up in a creaky old house on a remote island off the coast of Scotland in the 1970s. Effie is telling the story of her recent college exploits, while Nora reluctantly tells of their family history. There are other stories, too, including the mystery novel Effie is writing, as well as excerpts from books being written by other characters, both professors and fellow students.

Effie's story provides the backbone of the book, and the chance to rewrite reality when Nora doesn't like some detail, or when Effie feels like embellishing something. But at its essence, the truth of Effie's story is only what Effie can provide via her limited perspective, the richer story revealed as Nora's story, and more, are woven into Effie's. Thankfully, the use of multiple fonts makes this sufficiently easy to follow. I hope I don't have a long wait for Atkinson's next novel. ( )

Kate Atkinson is not afraid of experimenting. She is not content with following conventional forms, although she writes in those forms very well.

Emotionally Weird is a story told by a mother and daughter, Nora and Effie, who are holed up on an inhospitable island off the coast of Scotland, an island that has been "in the family" for generations. What that family is, who is actually in it, is a big question in Effie's mind. Her mother hints that she isn't really her mother but she is reluctant to say exactly where Effie came from.

The two choose to tell stories. Effie offers her story, fiction, in large doses. Nora will only take tiny steps with her true story. In between, Effie offers parts from the fiction detective story she is writing for class, and even bits of other assignments. It's a little confusing. Atkinson differentiates among the different voices by the use of different fonts. I wonder how a book like this would be read aloud.

Nora complains that Effie's story "doesn't go anywhere". It is true that things happen but there is no central conflict or motivating force moving Effie's fictional self from place to place. I had to agree with Nora. I got tired of all the activity that was like a hamster wheel. It seemed like writing exercises. I had a funny feeling that Atkinson was throwing all these exercises in one book and adding transitions. Up to a point, anyway.

Effie dwells on her time in college, her interactions with other students, her time in class - tutorials, the adventures the students go on instead of studying. Nora talks about her parents and their parents and her siblings.

In the end it does wrap up and there really is a story. I was gratified by this and became absorbed more toward the end than I had been through much of the rest. I'd love to hear how others thought of this book. ( )

An appropriate title for this book I fear. Whilst there is considerable humour in the writing, the style I found inaccessible and not to my taste, unlike the author's Brodie books. There are three interlocking stories, although at the end two seemed to be the same character, very confusing. There are also many characters to get to grips with and remembering who was who was challenging, especially after a delay in reading. The main character appears to be reading her novel to her mother and within that novel the main character is also writing a novel... ( )