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Shrines of Gaiety
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Historical Fiction (2022)London 1926. Roaring Twenties.
Corruption. Seduction. Debts due.
In a country still recovering from the Great War, London is the focus for a delirious nightlife. In Soho clubs, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.
There, Nellie Coker is a ruthless ruler, ambitious for her six children. Niven is the eldest, his enigmatic character forged in the harsh Somme. But success breeds enemies. Nellie faces threats from without and within. Beneath the gaiety lies a dark underbelly, where one may be all too easily lost.
Corruption. Seduction. Debts due.
In a country still recovering from the Great War, London is the focus for a delirious nightlife. In Soho clubs, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.
There, Nellie Coker is a ruthless ruler, ambitious for her six children. Niven is the eldest, his enigmatic character forged in the harsh Somme. But success breeds enemies. Nellie faces threats from without and within. Beneath the gaiety lies a dark underbelly, where one may be all too easily lost.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published September 27, 2022
About the author
Kate Atkinson
60 books11.2k followersKate Atkinson was born in York and now lives in Edinburgh. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and she has been a critically acclaimed international bestselling author ever since.
She is the author of a collection of short stories, Not the End of the World, and of the critically acclaimed novels Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Case Histories, and One Good Turn.
Case Histories introduced her readers to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, and won the Saltire Book of the Year Award and the Prix Westminster.
When Will There Be Good News? was voted Richard & Judy Book Best Read of the Year. After Case Histories and One Good Turn, it was her third novel to feature the former private detective Jackson Brodie, who makes a welcome return in Started Early, Took My Dog.
She is the author of a collection of short stories, Not the End of the World, and of the critically acclaimed novels Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Case Histories, and One Good Turn.
Case Histories introduced her readers to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, and won the Saltire Book of the Year Award and the Prix Westminster.
When Will There Be Good News? was voted Richard & Judy Book Best Read of the Year. After Case Histories and One Good Turn, it was her third novel to feature the former private detective Jackson Brodie, who makes a welcome return in Started Early, Took My Dog.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,219 reviews
August 27, 2022
Glitz, Glamor, and Gangsters!
Shrines of Gaiety is a witty romp of a novel that takes place in the dark underbelly of London during the Roaring 20s.
Nellie Coker is at the forefront of the story. She isa cut-throat nightclub owner recently released from prison who finds her hands full battling with her 6 duplicitous children, a librarian, a detective, and two missing teenage girls.
The narrative alternates primarily between Nellie, night club proprietress; Detective Frobisher investigating the Coker family; former librarian Gwendolen Kelling; and Freda, a 14-year-old runaway searching for stardom. There are a few more voices mixed in. There are many characters to keep track of, but each has a distinct voice making it easy to not get confused. What is a little confusing in the beginning is how the characters connect.
All of the characters are multilayered and unique. Gwendolen was my favorite, but I could have used more chapters from ruthless Ma Coker’s POV. It isn’t often that one reads the portrayal of a female gangster in the 1920s.
I loved the setting, as Atkinson captures the feeling of 1920s London. From the gritty streets to the posh clubs to the dirty underbelly of the elite, I was transported. In addition, there are drugs, mob wars, the sex trade, the chase of fame and fortune, and murder to contend with.
I loved everything about this book. The dialogue is sharp, quick-paced, and witty. There are a ton of subtle literary references mixed in. I would describe Shrines of Gaiety as a bit of Peaky Blinders combined with Gatsby. Atkinson brings to the table exquisite writing and captivating characters.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Doubleday Books.
Shrines of Gaiety is a witty romp of a novel that takes place in the dark underbelly of London during the Roaring 20s.
Nellie Coker is at the forefront of the story. She isa cut-throat nightclub owner recently released from prison who finds her hands full battling with her 6 duplicitous children, a librarian, a detective, and two missing teenage girls.
The narrative alternates primarily between Nellie, night club proprietress; Detective Frobisher investigating the Coker family; former librarian Gwendolen Kelling; and Freda, a 14-year-old runaway searching for stardom. There are a few more voices mixed in. There are many characters to keep track of, but each has a distinct voice making it easy to not get confused. What is a little confusing in the beginning is how the characters connect.
All of the characters are multilayered and unique. Gwendolen was my favorite, but I could have used more chapters from ruthless Ma Coker’s POV. It isn’t often that one reads the portrayal of a female gangster in the 1920s.
I loved the setting, as Atkinson captures the feeling of 1920s London. From the gritty streets to the posh clubs to the dirty underbelly of the elite, I was transported. In addition, there are drugs, mob wars, the sex trade, the chase of fame and fortune, and murder to contend with.
I loved everything about this book. The dialogue is sharp, quick-paced, and witty. There are a ton of subtle literary references mixed in. I would describe Shrines of Gaiety as a bit of Peaky Blinders combined with Gatsby. Atkinson brings to the table exquisite writing and captivating characters.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Doubleday Books.
July 1, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️
It’s 1926, and eight years after the end of the Great War, England is still recovering. However, in London, the dazzling nightlife has become a magnet for a diverse range of people, from peers of the realm to gangsters, to corrupt cops, and everything in between.
In Soho, London, Nellie Coker is queen of all she surveys - successful owner of a string of nightclubs, she’s a ruthless character - knows what she wants, and also gets what she wants! She’s extremely shrewd, has a good business head, and is determined and ambitious enough to want the best education that money can buy for her six children - her nightclubs provide the means for those ambitions.
Of course, the world in which Nellie Coker exists is a very dangerous one, there’s always someone wanting to take the very lucrative crown, and so it is, that Nellie’s empire comes under threat from various sources, including enemies at the gates and also within the walls!
Well written, well researched ‘The Shrines of Gaiety’ is simply outstanding. A huge cast of characters (which I’m not always fond of), but in this case they were all so wonderfully drawn, each of them compelling and memorable in their own right. The storyline is completely absorbing, very difficult to put down, so much so, that it was with great sadness that I turned the last page!
*Thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Doubleday for my ‘wish for it’ copy. I have given an honest unbiased review in exchange *
It’s 1926, and eight years after the end of the Great War, England is still recovering. However, in London, the dazzling nightlife has become a magnet for a diverse range of people, from peers of the realm to gangsters, to corrupt cops, and everything in between.
In Soho, London, Nellie Coker is queen of all she surveys - successful owner of a string of nightclubs, she’s a ruthless character - knows what she wants, and also gets what she wants! She’s extremely shrewd, has a good business head, and is determined and ambitious enough to want the best education that money can buy for her six children - her nightclubs provide the means for those ambitions.
Of course, the world in which Nellie Coker exists is a very dangerous one, there’s always someone wanting to take the very lucrative crown, and so it is, that Nellie’s empire comes under threat from various sources, including enemies at the gates and also within the walls!
Well written, well researched ‘The Shrines of Gaiety’ is simply outstanding. A huge cast of characters (which I’m not always fond of), but in this case they were all so wonderfully drawn, each of them compelling and memorable in their own right. The storyline is completely absorbing, very difficult to put down, so much so, that it was with great sadness that I turned the last page!
*Thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Doubleday for my ‘wish for it’ copy. I have given an honest unbiased review in exchange *
April 10, 2024
I'm not really sure what the point of 70% of these pages was - this could have easily been a short story instead of 400 pages of detailed (and are they ever detailed!) backstories, thoughts, and opinions of 23 characters (none of whom are particularly compelling or distinct). Yes, the imagery is vivid, and the writing is rich, but it's a bit like throwing delicious, decadent frosting on a cake made of sawdust - it doesn't disguise the fact that I'm being served sawdust. Atkinson constructs a beautiful world but desperately needs an editor.
August 3, 2022
Kate Atkinson's 1920s set historical novel beguiles as it paints a Dickensian picture of London with its filth, poverty, the sordid, criminal gangs, streetwalkers, corrupt cops, gambling, and murder, a city desperate to shrug off the terrors, pain, suffering, grief, death and darkness of the war and passionately embrace a culture of dancing, drink, drugs, and debauchery, like there is no tomorrow, the roaring twenties have arrived. Filling this need and making money hand over fist is the notorious Nellie 'Ma' Coker with her 'shrines of gaiety', her popular group of nightclubs, the jewel in the crown being 'The Amethyst', where royalty, peers of the realm, film stars, 'bright young things', and foreign dignitaries rub shoulders with criminals and everything inbetween. She is a powerful, successful, pagan and ruthless force of nature to be reckoned with, operating in a cut throat man's world of business of the time, wedded to reading the future through the cards and haunted by a past that has her constantly seeing the dripping wet, ghostly appariton of a young girl.
Whilst not containing a maternal bone in her body, Nellie will do whatever she can to ensure the survival and elevation of her 6 children. There is the war hardened sniper and his own man, Niven, the reliable book keeper Edith, the Cambridge educated if vacuous, Betty and Shirley, expected to marry into the aristocracy, the unrooted Ramsay with his pretensions of being a novelist, and the young Kitty. Upon being released from a stint in Holloway Prison, Nellie is the toast of the town, but some sense weakness, making plans to grab her business empire, willing to do anything to hasten her downfall, others pose a danger to her family, and some threats come from within. But Nellie is no pushover, she might be getting older, but she has not lost her guile and cunning. The honest DCI John Frobisher wants to ensure Ma Coker faces justice, and recruits an unlikely spy, a provincial librarian and ex-battlefield nurse, Gwendolen Kelling, with her charismatic spirit of adventure, to help him. She is in London to finally live a life, and to find the runaway girls, Freda, chasing her pipe dreams of dancing and fame, and her naive and more innocent friend, Florence.
Freda and Florence have been lured to a city where girls and young women are disappearing, some turning up dead in the River Thames. Atkinson spins a delightful, vibrant and ripping historical yarn of a London in the grip of a life affirming need to throw off the shackles of the horrors of war, capturing the collapse of class and social divisions in the excitement, thrills and hedonism of the nightlife. This glittering age exists simultaneously amidst the background of insights into the Coker family, crime and corruption, a web of intrigue and plotting, and the undercurrents of menace with the rising tide of dead young girls. This is a irresistible, captivating and engaging read, although I should warn readers that it might take a little time to become fully immersed and that there is a large cast of disparate characters that inhabit the narrative. Highly recommended for fans of Atkinson and other readers, including those who love their historical fiction. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
Whilst not containing a maternal bone in her body, Nellie will do whatever she can to ensure the survival and elevation of her 6 children. There is the war hardened sniper and his own man, Niven, the reliable book keeper Edith, the Cambridge educated if vacuous, Betty and Shirley, expected to marry into the aristocracy, the unrooted Ramsay with his pretensions of being a novelist, and the young Kitty. Upon being released from a stint in Holloway Prison, Nellie is the toast of the town, but some sense weakness, making plans to grab her business empire, willing to do anything to hasten her downfall, others pose a danger to her family, and some threats come from within. But Nellie is no pushover, she might be getting older, but she has not lost her guile and cunning. The honest DCI John Frobisher wants to ensure Ma Coker faces justice, and recruits an unlikely spy, a provincial librarian and ex-battlefield nurse, Gwendolen Kelling, with her charismatic spirit of adventure, to help him. She is in London to finally live a life, and to find the runaway girls, Freda, chasing her pipe dreams of dancing and fame, and her naive and more innocent friend, Florence.
Freda and Florence have been lured to a city where girls and young women are disappearing, some turning up dead in the River Thames. Atkinson spins a delightful, vibrant and ripping historical yarn of a London in the grip of a life affirming need to throw off the shackles of the horrors of war, capturing the collapse of class and social divisions in the excitement, thrills and hedonism of the nightlife. This glittering age exists simultaneously amidst the background of insights into the Coker family, crime and corruption, a web of intrigue and plotting, and the undercurrents of menace with the rising tide of dead young girls. This is a irresistible, captivating and engaging read, although I should warn readers that it might take a little time to become fully immersed and that there is a large cast of disparate characters that inhabit the narrative. Highly recommended for fans of Atkinson and other readers, including those who love their historical fiction. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
October 2, 2022
Beneath their costumes people could be anyone, their intentions anything. It was a frightening idea.
I find myself somewhat torn about Kate Atkinson's new novel, "Shrines of Gaiety".
I mean, it wasn't bad or awful. Not at all. Her love for the language is apparent as ever and as always. Her vocabulary and writing style is simply magical. She's a true artist and its shown clearly in this new offering, like a painter having fun with the colors on the canvas. Her imagination and description are as vivid as ever, and 1926 London felt alive, vivid, lifeful, as if you can just go and visit there. Foe me, it's one of the main reasons why I always come back to her novels- her love of language, vocabulary and imagination are boundless.
Unfortunately, there's a but..
"Shrines of Gaiety" biggest problem is its characters. They're.. dull, would you believe? Most of them seem irrelevant to the story (I'm looking at you, Florence. Seriously, what was her purpose? It seemed like she was just there for the sake of being included in the story, but her impact on the story in nonexistent), and are not relatable. Freda and Gwendolen are the only characters who manage to elicit some emotion from the reader, while all the others seem superficial and lifeless. The plot also is a slow-burner, which on the one hand is quite understandable, as you have a huge cast of characters to contend with, so it takes time for the story to get going. It gets somewhat interesting as the you move along, with some great instances of humor and even some suspense, but for the most part, it's just boring and gets too long to get the point. Also, it was hard to even hate Maddox or Azzopardi, as they both aren't developed enough are just bland "Bad Guys".
The ending itself is quite weird. Seemed rushed in some parts, and somewhat confusing (Gwendolen and Niven's part, and particularly Florence's part. It just seemed so out of place, odd and pointless).
3 and a half stars, rounded down to three.
"Shrines of Gaiety" definitely has all the usual hallmarks of a Kate Atkinson novel, and as mentioned above, her writing style, vocabulary, imagination and attention to detail is superb as usual. But the plot itself is too slow to develop, and the characters themselves are bland and non-engaging and underdeveloped, and these factors definitely hurt the novel.
Although, if you do fancy a visit to 1926 London, this novel definitely takes you there with its vivid, lifelul descriptions.
All in all, not a bad novel to pass the time with, but definitely not one of Atkinson's best works.
I find myself somewhat torn about Kate Atkinson's new novel, "Shrines of Gaiety".
I mean, it wasn't bad or awful. Not at all. Her love for the language is apparent as ever and as always. Her vocabulary and writing style is simply magical. She's a true artist and its shown clearly in this new offering, like a painter having fun with the colors on the canvas. Her imagination and description are as vivid as ever, and 1926 London felt alive, vivid, lifeful, as if you can just go and visit there. Foe me, it's one of the main reasons why I always come back to her novels- her love of language, vocabulary and imagination are boundless.
Unfortunately, there's a but..
"Shrines of Gaiety" biggest problem is its characters. They're.. dull, would you believe? Most of them seem irrelevant to the story (I'm looking at you, Florence. Seriously, what was her purpose? It seemed like she was just there for the sake of being included in the story, but her impact on the story in nonexistent), and are not relatable. Freda and Gwendolen are the only characters who manage to elicit some emotion from the reader, while all the others seem superficial and lifeless. The plot also is a slow-burner, which on the one hand is quite understandable, as you have a huge cast of characters to contend with, so it takes time for the story to get going. It gets somewhat interesting as the you move along, with some great instances of humor and even some suspense, but for the most part, it's just boring and gets too long to get the point. Also, it was hard to even hate Maddox or Azzopardi, as they both aren't developed enough are just bland "Bad Guys".
The ending itself is quite weird. Seemed rushed in some parts, and somewhat confusing (Gwendolen and Niven's part, and particularly Florence's part. It just seemed so out of place, odd and pointless).
3 and a half stars, rounded down to three.
"Shrines of Gaiety" definitely has all the usual hallmarks of a Kate Atkinson novel, and as mentioned above, her writing style, vocabulary, imagination and attention to detail is superb as usual. But the plot itself is too slow to develop, and the characters themselves are bland and non-engaging and underdeveloped, and these factors definitely hurt the novel.
Although, if you do fancy a visit to 1926 London, this novel definitely takes you there with its vivid, lifelul descriptions.
All in all, not a bad novel to pass the time with, but definitely not one of Atkinson's best works.
October 6, 2022
“Crime never sleeps — it was quite easy to be killed on the streets of London either by accident or design”.
My favorite book by Kate Atkinson was “A God in Ruins” ….I just loved it. “Life After Life” drove me batty…(most everyone in my local book club loved it) — but me — I couldn’t wait for the main protagonist to die….for finally the last time!
But Bruce Katz (Goodreads great guy) is absolutely right —this book is certainly more like “A God in Ruins” than “Life After Life”…..
So….
If I HAD to choose just one word to describe “Shrines of Gaiety”…I’d say ENTERTAINING!!!
…..The blurb describes this book perfectly without giving away the ‘heart-of-the-artichoke’…
“Shrines of Gaiety” is also…
…historical
…suspenseful
…funny, witty, naughty& nice….
…..filled with betrayals, corruption, dreams of stardom, low-life nightclubs, secrets, family, marriage, boyfriends, gangs, back alley abortions, bad cops, con men, solicitation, thieving, a couple of missing girls, (Freda and Florence), hedonism, London night life during the Jazz aura in the 1920’s, alcoholism, sexual identity confusion, addiction, prostitution, random attacks, assaults, murders, remembering the horrors-of-war, people being taken advantage of, and even a little romance.
And….
…There are vivacious blundering quirky characters
……young, old, innocent, and sinful….
In Nellie Croker’s domain—she’s a self-made Queen-of many nightclubs….(almost as many nightclubs around town: —Amethyst the main one —as the number of children she has)….FIVE nightclubs: SIX children. [Niven, Edith, Betty, Shirley, Ramsay, and Kitty] > each with their backstories.
The story begins in 1926 with Nellie coming out of prison.
“Ordinary members of the public and gang roughs rubbed shoulders with royalty, both those in exile and those still in possession of their thrones, Americans rich beyond measure, Indian and African princesses, officers of the Guards, writers, artists, opera singers, orchestra conductors, stars of the West End stage, as well as the chorus boys and girls—there was nowhere else in England, possibly in the world, where so many different estates could be found together at one time, not even in Epsom on Derby Day. Unlike many— indeed, most—Nellie harbored few prejudices. She did not discriminate by colour or rank or race. If you had the money for the entrance fee, you were allowed ingress to her kingdom. In Nellie’s view, money was the measure of a man—or woman”.
We meet Chief Inspector John Frobisher…..(and his wife Lottie)
…..Frobisher (lived in Ealing-but prefer the police station to his Ealing terrace), had a fixation on the Cokers, particularly Nellie.
He was an interesting character …..
“He had tried, God help him, to chat and prattle about the weather or horse-racing, even films, but he ended up sounding like a poor amateur actor”.
“His real passions were esoteric, as a little interest to the common man or his colleagues in Bow Street, certainly not to his wife—the Berlin Treaty between Germany and the Soviets (how could that end well?) or a demonstration of a ’televisor’ to the Royal Society by a chap called Baird (like something from a H. G. Wells novel). He had an enquiring mind. It was a curse. Even sometimes for a detective”.
“Frobisher’s wife was called Charlotte—Lottie. She was French, or Belgian, she seemed unsure, certainly borderline, plucked from the brightened remains of Ypres at the end of the war with nothing but a bulb of garlic and her pocket, and had no papers to elucidate and do not care to remember on account of what the doctors called ‘hysterical amnesia’”.
…Gwendolen Kelling survived WWI….she worked as a nurse. She came to London to help John Frobisher look for the missing girls — and worked in the local library.
…Maddox (promoted to inspector after the war), was in collision with Nellie Coker, He protected her from the law, but wasn’t sure what else he benefited from.
Maddox lived above his salary in a large house with his wife and five children.
Lots of sensational enjoyment…with inexplicable situations….
….with a bittersweet ending.
Kate Atkinson holds onto her reputation….
…..she’s smart, phenomenally talented, and has given us another rocking-romp of a novel.
My favorite book by Kate Atkinson was “A God in Ruins” ….I just loved it. “Life After Life” drove me batty…(most everyone in my local book club loved it) — but me — I couldn’t wait for the main protagonist to die….for finally the last time!
But Bruce Katz (Goodreads great guy) is absolutely right —this book is certainly more like “A God in Ruins” than “Life After Life”…..
So….
If I HAD to choose just one word to describe “Shrines of Gaiety”…I’d say ENTERTAINING!!!
…..The blurb describes this book perfectly without giving away the ‘heart-of-the-artichoke’…
“Shrines of Gaiety” is also…
…historical
…suspenseful
…funny, witty, naughty& nice….
…..filled with betrayals, corruption, dreams of stardom, low-life nightclubs, secrets, family, marriage, boyfriends, gangs, back alley abortions, bad cops, con men, solicitation, thieving, a couple of missing girls, (Freda and Florence), hedonism, London night life during the Jazz aura in the 1920’s, alcoholism, sexual identity confusion, addiction, prostitution, random attacks, assaults, murders, remembering the horrors-of-war, people being taken advantage of, and even a little romance.
And….
…There are vivacious blundering quirky characters
……young, old, innocent, and sinful….
In Nellie Croker’s domain—she’s a self-made Queen-of many nightclubs….(almost as many nightclubs around town: —Amethyst the main one —as the number of children she has)….FIVE nightclubs: SIX children. [Niven, Edith, Betty, Shirley, Ramsay, and Kitty] > each with their backstories.
The story begins in 1926 with Nellie coming out of prison.
“Ordinary members of the public and gang roughs rubbed shoulders with royalty, both those in exile and those still in possession of their thrones, Americans rich beyond measure, Indian and African princesses, officers of the Guards, writers, artists, opera singers, orchestra conductors, stars of the West End stage, as well as the chorus boys and girls—there was nowhere else in England, possibly in the world, where so many different estates could be found together at one time, not even in Epsom on Derby Day. Unlike many— indeed, most—Nellie harbored few prejudices. She did not discriminate by colour or rank or race. If you had the money for the entrance fee, you were allowed ingress to her kingdom. In Nellie’s view, money was the measure of a man—or woman”.
We meet Chief Inspector John Frobisher…..(and his wife Lottie)
…..Frobisher (lived in Ealing-but prefer the police station to his Ealing terrace), had a fixation on the Cokers, particularly Nellie.
He was an interesting character …..
“He had tried, God help him, to chat and prattle about the weather or horse-racing, even films, but he ended up sounding like a poor amateur actor”.
“His real passions were esoteric, as a little interest to the common man or his colleagues in Bow Street, certainly not to his wife—the Berlin Treaty between Germany and the Soviets (how could that end well?) or a demonstration of a ’televisor’ to the Royal Society by a chap called Baird (like something from a H. G. Wells novel). He had an enquiring mind. It was a curse. Even sometimes for a detective”.
“Frobisher’s wife was called Charlotte—Lottie. She was French, or Belgian, she seemed unsure, certainly borderline, plucked from the brightened remains of Ypres at the end of the war with nothing but a bulb of garlic and her pocket, and had no papers to elucidate and do not care to remember on account of what the doctors called ‘hysterical amnesia’”.
…Gwendolen Kelling survived WWI….she worked as a nurse. She came to London to help John Frobisher look for the missing girls — and worked in the local library.
…Maddox (promoted to inspector after the war), was in collision with Nellie Coker, He protected her from the law, but wasn’t sure what else he benefited from.
Maddox lived above his salary in a large house with his wife and five children.
Lots of sensational enjoyment…with inexplicable situations….
….with a bittersweet ending.
Kate Atkinson holds onto her reputation….
…..she’s smart, phenomenally talented, and has given us another rocking-romp of a novel.
September 20, 2022
It’s 1926, and eight years after the end of the Great War, England is still recovering. However, in London, the dazzling nightlife has become a magnet for a diverse range of people, from peers of the realm to gangsters, to corrupt cops, and everything in between.
In Soho, London, Nellie Coker is queen of all she surveys - successful owner of a string of nightclubs, she’s a ruthless character - knows what she wants, and also gets what she wants! She’s extremely shrewd, has a good business head, and is determined and ambitious enough to want the best education that money can buy for her six children - her nightclubs provide the means for those ambitions.
Of course, the world in which Nellie Coker exists is a very dangerous one, there’s always someone wanting to take the very lucrative crown, and so it is, that Nellie’s empire comes under threat from various sources, including enemies at the gates and also within the walls!
Well written, well researched ‘The Shrines of Gaiety’ is simply outstanding. A huge cast of characters (which I’m not always fond of), but in this case they were all so wonderfully drawn, each of them compelling and memorable in their own right. The storyline is completely absorbing, very difficult to put down, so much so, that it was with great sadness that I turned the last page!
In Soho, London, Nellie Coker is queen of all she surveys - successful owner of a string of nightclubs, she’s a ruthless character - knows what she wants, and also gets what she wants! She’s extremely shrewd, has a good business head, and is determined and ambitious enough to want the best education that money can buy for her six children - her nightclubs provide the means for those ambitions.
Of course, the world in which Nellie Coker exists is a very dangerous one, there’s always someone wanting to take the very lucrative crown, and so it is, that Nellie’s empire comes under threat from various sources, including enemies at the gates and also within the walls!
Well written, well researched ‘The Shrines of Gaiety’ is simply outstanding. A huge cast of characters (which I’m not always fond of), but in this case they were all so wonderfully drawn, each of them compelling and memorable in their own right. The storyline is completely absorbing, very difficult to put down, so much so, that it was with great sadness that I turned the last page!
October 23, 2022
An enjoyable read if you're interested to find out how the night life was run in the early 1920s in London. Characters and their next moves are rather predictable, still, this is not a psychological drama but a book which mob ways in that period. Gaiety was the No 1 word then!
OverDrive, thank you!
OverDrive, thank you!
July 13, 2022
Why has a crowd of well dressed toffs and some early shift workers gathered outside Holloway Prison so early one morning in 1926? It’s for ‘her’ - the her in question being Ma (Nellie/Ellen) Coker, the Queen of Clubs, the shrines of post war gaiety as she’s released from a six month stint inside. Watching Ma leave and the crowd disperse is DCI John Frobisher and he has a plan and Gwendolen Kelling, a librarian from York finds herself in the midst of it all.
Kate Atkinson is a magical writer and has been a firm favourite of mine since Behind the scenes at the Museum and this latest novel is a great addition to her many bestsellers. The writing is lively, colourful and evocative of the times capturing the post Great War world in multiple ways. The setting in York and London spring to life before your eyes and the clubs where the whole range of society rub shoulders together are especially vivid and here some very creative and dramatic scenes take place! It’s almost like watching a tv dramatisation it’s so well described.
The characterisation is exceptional. There are a lot of characters but in this author’s capable hands it matters not a jot as with a few deft strokes they are visible. I love Gwendolen, she’s one smart cookie as is Ma as you find you have no choice but to admire her guile and manifold abilities. You have to get up very early in the morning to catch her out and even then she’s probably two jumps ahead of you!! What a woman!!!
The dialogue is clever and smart ranging from ironic to witty to downright funny with more than a smidgeon or two of mockery! It’s the tone I love the most as it pulls you in from the start. The language of the times is spot on and highly entertaining.
This is a character driven, leisurely and delightful stroll like a walk along the Thames which is important in the storyline. The plot is clever, capturing the underbelly of the gangs who marvel in names like the Hackney Huns and the corruption of individuals who want turf control and that of the clubs. I like the way the plot almost comes full circle at the end.
It must be obvious by now that I love this book and I’m so glued to its pages I’m oblivious to what’s going on around me! For me, it’s a triumph.
With thanks to NetGalley and most especially to Random House U.K./ Transworld for the privilege of the arc in return for an honest review
Kate Atkinson is a magical writer and has been a firm favourite of mine since Behind the scenes at the Museum and this latest novel is a great addition to her many bestsellers. The writing is lively, colourful and evocative of the times capturing the post Great War world in multiple ways. The setting in York and London spring to life before your eyes and the clubs where the whole range of society rub shoulders together are especially vivid and here some very creative and dramatic scenes take place! It’s almost like watching a tv dramatisation it’s so well described.
The characterisation is exceptional. There are a lot of characters but in this author’s capable hands it matters not a jot as with a few deft strokes they are visible. I love Gwendolen, she’s one smart cookie as is Ma as you find you have no choice but to admire her guile and manifold abilities. You have to get up very early in the morning to catch her out and even then she’s probably two jumps ahead of you!! What a woman!!!
The dialogue is clever and smart ranging from ironic to witty to downright funny with more than a smidgeon or two of mockery! It’s the tone I love the most as it pulls you in from the start. The language of the times is spot on and highly entertaining.
This is a character driven, leisurely and delightful stroll like a walk along the Thames which is important in the storyline. The plot is clever, capturing the underbelly of the gangs who marvel in names like the Hackney Huns and the corruption of individuals who want turf control and that of the clubs. I like the way the plot almost comes full circle at the end.
It must be obvious by now that I love this book and I’m so glued to its pages I’m oblivious to what’s going on around me! For me, it’s a triumph.
With thanks to NetGalley and most especially to Random House U.K./ Transworld for the privilege of the arc in return for an honest review
September 1, 2022
if a new book by kate atkinson can't cheer me up outta this post-covid blues, write me off as a lost cause, kids...
July 18, 2023
This time Atkinson takes us to London in 1926, principally to the night life and the exotic clubs where the very rich, the powerful and criminals mixed as one. We meet Nellie Coker, just out of prison, who owns five of these night clubs all of them set up with the proceeds of crime. She is an amazing character.
There are so many great characters in this book and it does take a while to meet them all and to really become involved, but once you are it is exactly what we expect from this author - brilliant! I cannot decide which character I liked the best. Niven, Nellie's oldest son, is intriguing. He appears just when he is needed, drives the ultimate car (for that time) and goes everywhere with his Alsatian dog. DCI John Frobisher is very likeable, so well meaning but a little too reserved. Gwendolen is excellent,and I loved watching her take on the world, as does Freda in a different way. And those are just a few. There are many, many more.
Another thing to expect from this author is we do not get all the answers and we do get some unexpected and sad moments. As I was reading the last few pages I was thinking 'No you can't do that to me!' but she can and she did. A great read easily worth the full five stars.
There are so many great characters in this book and it does take a while to meet them all and to really become involved, but once you are it is exactly what we expect from this author - brilliant! I cannot decide which character I liked the best. Niven, Nellie's oldest son, is intriguing. He appears just when he is needed, drives the ultimate car (for that time) and goes everywhere with his Alsatian dog. DCI John Frobisher is very likeable, so well meaning but a little too reserved. Gwendolen is excellent,and I loved watching her take on the world, as does Freda in a different way. And those are just a few. There are many, many more.
Another thing to expect from this author is we do not get all the answers and we do get some unexpected and sad moments. As I was reading the last few pages I was thinking 'No you can't do that to me!' but she can and she did. A great read easily worth the full five stars.
July 16, 2022
Ah Kate Atkinson. One of the most reliable writers around. This is my TENTH novel by Atkinson and I have yet to be disappointed. This has a nice combination of Atkinson's biggest themes--crime and war--while it also has a light touch. An awful lot of terrible things happen but this doesn't bring you down the way a Jackson Brodie novel does, it's got some of that Roaring 20's energy.
I warn you: this one takes a while to get going. Which is not such a surprise once you realize there are approximately 15 main characters. There's at least 5 plots, probably more like 8 or 10, which sounds unmanageable but it's surprisingly breezy. Reading it felt a lot like an extremely well plotted prestige tv series, where you spend the first two episodes planting a lot of seeds and learning who everyone is, then you get to just watch it go from there.
It's not long after The Great War. Nellie Coker, the proprietress of several of London's most popular clubs, has just been released from prison after serving a few months for minor crimes. We also meet Nellie's 6 adult children, who have been running the clubs while she was out. Nellie's imprisonment seems a potential sign of worse to come and they all worry her empire is under threat. There's a Chief Inspector who sees Nellie as a moral danger and is determined to bring her down. There's a teenage girl who's left home seeking fame on the stage. And there's a country-librarian-turned-war-nurse who has come to London to look for her friend's absconded teenage sister, who finds herself agreeing to go undercover for the Chief Inspector.
There are more characters I haven't even mentioned yet! I didn't find this hard to take in, really, but you do jump around quite a bit. Atkinson likes to move you forwards and then backwards, but it's all done with a firm hand making sure you get all the bits you need to know.
We see how run down everyone is after the war, while most of the characters didn't serve at the Front, the ones left behind still feel the pain of it. And we see how the clubs bring a gaiety and a release after so much grief.
Truly this made me wish we had clubs like this now. They are lush and lavish, even the rundown ones give the appearance of luxury. I loved all the descriptions, I would have loved to sit down and have one of those cocktails in Gwendolen's blue silk gown.
The combination of light and dark has always been an Atkinson specialty but it's better than ever here. This may be, in many ways, her lightest book in ages, even though the central crimes are not actually Nellie's but the string of unidentified young women who keep getting pulled out of the Thames, many of them killed elsewhere and dumped. There are attempted sexual assaults and back alley abortions and sex workers and pickpockets and homophobia and suicide and plenty of cocaine, too.
Once I hit my stride with this book I was always so excited to pick it up. It also has a pretty great climax, too. Even with so many threads, it takes the time to tie up almost every one. (And the one it leaves rather loose is quite the gut punch.)
You can really feel the grime and the sparkle in this book, I am extremely picky about historical fiction, but you can't really go wrong with this one.
I warn you: this one takes a while to get going. Which is not such a surprise once you realize there are approximately 15 main characters. There's at least 5 plots, probably more like 8 or 10, which sounds unmanageable but it's surprisingly breezy. Reading it felt a lot like an extremely well plotted prestige tv series, where you spend the first two episodes planting a lot of seeds and learning who everyone is, then you get to just watch it go from there.
It's not long after The Great War. Nellie Coker, the proprietress of several of London's most popular clubs, has just been released from prison after serving a few months for minor crimes. We also meet Nellie's 6 adult children, who have been running the clubs while she was out. Nellie's imprisonment seems a potential sign of worse to come and they all worry her empire is under threat. There's a Chief Inspector who sees Nellie as a moral danger and is determined to bring her down. There's a teenage girl who's left home seeking fame on the stage. And there's a country-librarian-turned-war-nurse who has come to London to look for her friend's absconded teenage sister, who finds herself agreeing to go undercover for the Chief Inspector.
There are more characters I haven't even mentioned yet! I didn't find this hard to take in, really, but you do jump around quite a bit. Atkinson likes to move you forwards and then backwards, but it's all done with a firm hand making sure you get all the bits you need to know.
We see how run down everyone is after the war, while most of the characters didn't serve at the Front, the ones left behind still feel the pain of it. And we see how the clubs bring a gaiety and a release after so much grief.
Truly this made me wish we had clubs like this now. They are lush and lavish, even the rundown ones give the appearance of luxury. I loved all the descriptions, I would have loved to sit down and have one of those cocktails in Gwendolen's blue silk gown.
The combination of light and dark has always been an Atkinson specialty but it's better than ever here. This may be, in many ways, her lightest book in ages, even though the central crimes are not actually Nellie's but the string of unidentified young women who keep getting pulled out of the Thames, many of them killed elsewhere and dumped. There are attempted sexual assaults and back alley abortions and sex workers and pickpockets and homophobia and suicide and plenty of cocaine, too.
Once I hit my stride with this book I was always so excited to pick it up. It also has a pretty great climax, too. Even with so many threads, it takes the time to tie up almost every one. (And the one it leaves rather loose is quite the gut punch.)
You can really feel the grime and the sparkle in this book, I am extremely picky about historical fiction, but you can't really go wrong with this one.
October 11, 2023
EXCERPT: A pair of cream-and-black Bentleys - one owned and one rented for effect - drew up and the Coker clan divided themselves between them and drove away, waving as if they were royalty. Crime paid, fighting it didn't. Frobisher felt his law-abiding bile rising while he had to quash a pang of envy for the Bentleys. He was in the process of purchasing his own modest motor, an unshowy Austin Seven, the Everyman of cars.
The delinquent Coker empire was a house of cards that Frobisher aimed to topple. The filthy, glittering underbelly of London was concentrated in its nightclubs, and particularly the Amethyst, the gaudy jewel at the heart of Soho's nightlife. It was not the moral delinquency - the dancing, the drinking, not even the drugs - that dismayed Frobisher. It was the girls. Girls were disappearing in London. At least five he knew about had vanished over the last few weeks. Where did they go? He suspected that they went in through the doors of the Soho clubs and never came out again.
ABOUT 'SHRINES OF GAIETY': London 1926. Roaring Twenties.
Corruption. Seduction. Debts due.
In a country still recovering from the Great War, London is the focus for a delirious nightlife. In Soho clubs, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.
There, Nellie Coker is a ruthless ruler, ambitious for her six children. Niven is the eldest, his enigmatic character forged in the harsh Somme. But success breeds enemies. Nellie faces threats from without and within. Beneath the gaiety lies a dark underbelly, where one may be all too easily lost.
MY THOUGHTS: It took me some time to become engaged in his book - purely a reflection of me and my state of mind, not Kate Atkinson's writing, I have come to realise.
As always, Atkinson's work is character driven, the writing deliciously leisurely. I love her use of parenthesized asides; they are at times acerbically witty. She writes what I often think, or how I think. (Is there a difference?)
There is a large cast of characters: Nellie and her six (largely adult) children; Frobisher and his dog; Gwendolen who is, I think, the star of the story; Freda and Florence, just two of the many who run away to London seeking fame and fortune; a couple of bent policemen; Frobisher's mentally fragile wife Lottie; a man with several identities intent on regaining his ill-gotten gains; a journalist; many 'Bright Young Things' (read idiots); and a number of bodies, mostly fished out of the Thames. Even the young paperboy in the opening chapter makes a cameo appearance at the end. Each of these characters is clearly depicted and memorable in their own right. There's no chance of confusing any character with any other.
The storyline is entertaining. I gave up trying to figure out where Atkinson was taking me (I should know better by now) and just went along for the ride. And what a ride! Several things about the ending surprised me, but perhaps shouldn't have. Not everything is neatly tied up at the end and Atkinson makes it quite clear that she has done this deliberately.
Worthy of another read, as are all her books, and a definite keeper.
⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
#ShrinesofGaeity
THE AUTHOR: Kate Atkinson was born in York and now lives in Edinburgh. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and she has been a critically acclaimed international bestselling author ever since.
She is the author of a collection of short stories, Not the End of the World, and of the critically acclaimed novels Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Case Histories, and One Good Turn.
Case Histories introduced her readers to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, and won the Saltire Book of the Year Award and the Prix Westminster.
When Will There Be Good News? was voted Richard & Judy Book Best Read of the Year. After Case Histories and One Good Turn, it was her third novel to feature the former private detective Jackson Brodie, who makes a welcome return in Started Early, Took My Dog.
DISCLOSURE: I own my copy of Shrines of Gaeity by Kate Atkinson, published by Transworld, Doubleday. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
The delinquent Coker empire was a house of cards that Frobisher aimed to topple. The filthy, glittering underbelly of London was concentrated in its nightclubs, and particularly the Amethyst, the gaudy jewel at the heart of Soho's nightlife. It was not the moral delinquency - the dancing, the drinking, not even the drugs - that dismayed Frobisher. It was the girls. Girls were disappearing in London. At least five he knew about had vanished over the last few weeks. Where did they go? He suspected that they went in through the doors of the Soho clubs and never came out again.
ABOUT 'SHRINES OF GAIETY': London 1926. Roaring Twenties.
Corruption. Seduction. Debts due.
In a country still recovering from the Great War, London is the focus for a delirious nightlife. In Soho clubs, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.
There, Nellie Coker is a ruthless ruler, ambitious for her six children. Niven is the eldest, his enigmatic character forged in the harsh Somme. But success breeds enemies. Nellie faces threats from without and within. Beneath the gaiety lies a dark underbelly, where one may be all too easily lost.
MY THOUGHTS: It took me some time to become engaged in his book - purely a reflection of me and my state of mind, not Kate Atkinson's writing, I have come to realise.
As always, Atkinson's work is character driven, the writing deliciously leisurely. I love her use of parenthesized asides; they are at times acerbically witty. She writes what I often think, or how I think. (Is there a difference?)
There is a large cast of characters: Nellie and her six (largely adult) children; Frobisher and his dog; Gwendolen who is, I think, the star of the story; Freda and Florence, just two of the many who run away to London seeking fame and fortune; a couple of bent policemen; Frobisher's mentally fragile wife Lottie; a man with several identities intent on regaining his ill-gotten gains; a journalist; many 'Bright Young Things' (read idiots); and a number of bodies, mostly fished out of the Thames. Even the young paperboy in the opening chapter makes a cameo appearance at the end. Each of these characters is clearly depicted and memorable in their own right. There's no chance of confusing any character with any other.
The storyline is entertaining. I gave up trying to figure out where Atkinson was taking me (I should know better by now) and just went along for the ride. And what a ride! Several things about the ending surprised me, but perhaps shouldn't have. Not everything is neatly tied up at the end and Atkinson makes it quite clear that she has done this deliberately.
Worthy of another read, as are all her books, and a definite keeper.
⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
#ShrinesofGaeity
THE AUTHOR: Kate Atkinson was born in York and now lives in Edinburgh. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and she has been a critically acclaimed international bestselling author ever since.
She is the author of a collection of short stories, Not the End of the World, and of the critically acclaimed novels Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Case Histories, and One Good Turn.
Case Histories introduced her readers to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, and won the Saltire Book of the Year Award and the Prix Westminster.
When Will There Be Good News? was voted Richard & Judy Book Best Read of the Year. After Case Histories and One Good Turn, it was her third novel to feature the former private detective Jackson Brodie, who makes a welcome return in Started Early, Took My Dog.
DISCLOSURE: I own my copy of Shrines of Gaeity by Kate Atkinson, published by Transworld, Doubleday. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
January 1, 2024
After the soul-numbing destruction of World War I, London roars back in the 1920s with a pleasure-seeking madness that borders on hysteria. The city is not only emerging from the gloom of war, it's still wiping off the grime of the Industrial Age, teetering uneasily between a Dickensian depression and arch modernity. Young girls are discarded like used tea bags on the same narrow streets where sleek roadsters spill Bright Young Things in their diamonds and furs. There is money to be made in a place where the rich are desperate to have fun and the desperate will do anything to survive.
And who better to convey the interplay of shadow and light, the contradictions of the human spirit, the richness and ridiculousness of our history than the ne plus ultra of contemporary storytelling, Kate Atkinson? Calling upon her superpower as a genre-defying explorer of the human condition, Atkinson conjures up a novel that is breathtaking historical fiction, white-knuckle mystery, tender treatise on the vulnerability of young women with age-old dreams, fragile love story, and homage to a city that may have existed only in our dreams.
Shrines of Gaiety borrows its storyline and characters from history, basing its nightclub maven Nellie Coker on real-life entrepreneur Kate Meyrick. Coker rose from widowed penury to create an empire of nightclubs scattered throughout London, each with its own flavor and whiff of decadent corruption. Her gaggle of grown children are involved in varying degrees in running the family business, but Nellie remains firmly in control, encouraging the trade of women, drugs and vice while maintaining a police inspector on her under-the-table payroll.
But there's a new badge in town, Chief Inspector John Frobisher, who's tracking the uptick in London's dead and disappeared girls and he suspects that Nellie, or at least someone in her sketchy enterprise, is involved. He enlists a forthright former nurse and country librarian turned amateur sleuth, Gwendolen Kelling, who becomes the book's unwitting heroine.
Because this is Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaiety blends wit, levity, a heady sense of things moving just a little too fast to control with deep tenderness, grace and vulnerability. The laugh-out-loud moments are followed by gasping tragedy and yet nothing is gratuitous. Atkinson earns every twist, every shock, every tear because we believe in her characters, the full depth and breadth of them that she effortlessly conveys in each scene. She weaves a vast cast into an astonishing backdrop of glitter and grime and a story that both entertains and enlightens.
One of my favorite authors of all time awes and inspires once again. If you like gripping historical fiction, literary crime, or just great stories, I can't recommend this highly enough.
And who better to convey the interplay of shadow and light, the contradictions of the human spirit, the richness and ridiculousness of our history than the ne plus ultra of contemporary storytelling, Kate Atkinson? Calling upon her superpower as a genre-defying explorer of the human condition, Atkinson conjures up a novel that is breathtaking historical fiction, white-knuckle mystery, tender treatise on the vulnerability of young women with age-old dreams, fragile love story, and homage to a city that may have existed only in our dreams.
Shrines of Gaiety borrows its storyline and characters from history, basing its nightclub maven Nellie Coker on real-life entrepreneur Kate Meyrick. Coker rose from widowed penury to create an empire of nightclubs scattered throughout London, each with its own flavor and whiff of decadent corruption. Her gaggle of grown children are involved in varying degrees in running the family business, but Nellie remains firmly in control, encouraging the trade of women, drugs and vice while maintaining a police inspector on her under-the-table payroll.
But there's a new badge in town, Chief Inspector John Frobisher, who's tracking the uptick in London's dead and disappeared girls and he suspects that Nellie, or at least someone in her sketchy enterprise, is involved. He enlists a forthright former nurse and country librarian turned amateur sleuth, Gwendolen Kelling, who becomes the book's unwitting heroine.
Because this is Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaiety blends wit, levity, a heady sense of things moving just a little too fast to control with deep tenderness, grace and vulnerability. The laugh-out-loud moments are followed by gasping tragedy and yet nothing is gratuitous. Atkinson earns every twist, every shock, every tear because we believe in her characters, the full depth and breadth of them that she effortlessly conveys in each scene. She weaves a vast cast into an astonishing backdrop of glitter and grime and a story that both entertains and enlightens.
One of my favorite authors of all time awes and inspires once again. If you like gripping historical fiction, literary crime, or just great stories, I can't recommend this highly enough.
October 16, 2022
I´ve loved all of Atkinson´s books: the Brodie series,the stand alones.She was always a delight to read:wit,clever plots, smart writing,so it saddens me to rate this one so low.
Starts well,good tableau,interesting characters, all the trademarks of Atkinson´s...and then it flops.
The wit gets old, the villains are really... not,the characters are just sketched,the parody is off,when in other books she excelled at nuance and layers. It´s all predictable,and,shockingly for me with this author,I got bored.
The glints of a great writer are there,but it´s not enough. Hope she gets back on form with the next one.
Starts well,good tableau,interesting characters, all the trademarks of Atkinson´s...and then it flops.
The wit gets old, the villains are really... not,the characters are just sketched,the parody is off,when in other books she excelled at nuance and layers. It´s all predictable,and,shockingly for me with this author,I got bored.
The glints of a great writer are there,but it´s not enough. Hope she gets back on form with the next one.
December 10, 2022
Kate Atkinson's latest foray into historical fiction is an entertaining romp through the illicit British nightclub world of the 1920s. Based on the life of Kate Meyrick, the " queen of the Soho night club scene," the novel focuses on the antics of her fictional counterpart, Nellie Coker, and her six children. In her low-key, tongue-in-cheek style, Atkinson chronicles the family's attempts to protect and maintain the Coker empire from gangsters and corrupt cops who want to take it over.
In addition, there is a subplot, a search for two teenage runaways, an incorruptible cop, and a feisty former WWI nurse, who enters the search at the behest of one of the runaway's sisters. Atkinson further complicates the narrative by making the nurse, cum amateur detective, the love interest of the incorruptible cop and eldest of Nellie Coker's sons. Atkinson maintains a light, lively style throughout yet captures the nuances of character and period well. Highly recommend.
In addition, there is a subplot, a search for two teenage runaways, an incorruptible cop, and a feisty former WWI nurse, who enters the search at the behest of one of the runaway's sisters. Atkinson further complicates the narrative by making the nurse, cum amateur detective, the love interest of the incorruptible cop and eldest of Nellie Coker's sons. Atkinson maintains a light, lively style throughout yet captures the nuances of character and period well. Highly recommend.
February 28, 2023
DNF @20%. I tried, really tried, because I hear Atkinson is a wonderful, enjoyable author.
Shrines of Gaiety is a verbose, superfluous novel rooted in historical facts while being the most frustrating, boring book ever.
First and foremost, the only thing Dickensian about it is the excessive use of arcane vocabulary, adjectives, commas, and parentheses !! And the repetition !!! Dickens chose his words to convey imagery and each word had a purpose.
75% of what I read in Shrines was useless to the plot. Many of the (parenthesis) was an “explanation” to the reader of what was previous stated with obvious intention. I don’t need an aside to explain why words were designated with a Capital Letter (the Knits anyone?).
This is an era I enjoy reading. Give me Fitzgerald, Christie, Hughes, Woolf, Elliot any day. Words matter & they should appeal to your intelligence, not insult it.
NOW: 20% in and the book flip flops time frame in a confusing order. There’s no real main character, though it should be Nellie Coker, who is based on Kate Meyrick, Queen of Nightclubs. There’s an inordinate amount of characters that are flat, two dimensional and boring as sawdust. Nothing has happened as of yet. There’s no mystery. There’s zero connection to be made with a single character.
I’m so disappointed. I was excited to read about The Golden Age which was a glamorous period with fun, fabulous and even exotic characters. Shrines of Gaiety was more like Shrines of Sawdust and Depression.
I can’t read any more of it. Based on the countless 1 star reviews it doesn’t get better and the ending is unsatisfactory. For that, I’m out.
Shrines of Gaiety is a verbose, superfluous novel rooted in historical facts while being the most frustrating, boring book ever.
First and foremost, the only thing Dickensian about it is the excessive use of arcane vocabulary, adjectives, commas, and parentheses !! And the repetition !!! Dickens chose his words to convey imagery and each word had a purpose.
75% of what I read in Shrines was useless to the plot. Many of the (parenthesis) was an “explanation” to the reader of what was previous stated with obvious intention. I don’t need an aside to explain why words were designated with a Capital Letter (the Knits anyone?).
This is an era I enjoy reading. Give me Fitzgerald, Christie, Hughes, Woolf, Elliot any day. Words matter & they should appeal to your intelligence, not insult it.
NOW: 20% in and the book flip flops time frame in a confusing order. There’s no real main character, though it should be Nellie Coker, who is based on Kate Meyrick, Queen of Nightclubs. There’s an inordinate amount of characters that are flat, two dimensional and boring as sawdust. Nothing has happened as of yet. There’s no mystery. There’s zero connection to be made with a single character.
I’m so disappointed. I was excited to read about The Golden Age which was a glamorous period with fun, fabulous and even exotic characters. Shrines of Gaiety was more like Shrines of Sawdust and Depression.
I can’t read any more of it. Based on the countless 1 star reviews it doesn’t get better and the ending is unsatisfactory. For that, I’m out.
October 30, 2022
I love Kate Atkinson. I have listened or read most of her books and she is a favorite. Yet of all her books this is my least favorite. I did get the audio from my library quite soon after its release and was anxious to enjoy it. So I started it right away and boy was it slow going. I never could engage with the characters or get really interested in the underlying mystery to be solved.
It is the story of a family who runs several night clubs in 1920's London--between the wars. The understory/mystery is what is happening to the girls who go missing from these clubs and the detective who is determined to find out.
Because I wasn't connecting with it, my listening slowed way down. This caused me to loose track of the story, I tried the print but this helped only a little. There seemed a lot of writing for the story and the mystery so buried I often forgot about it till the author chose to remind me. I will say that Freda and Flora were a bright spot and I loved hearing about their adventures.
The thing I loved best was the author's note at the end. It explained her interest and reference used and made me wish I had liked it better. 2.5 rounded up.
The audio by Jason Watkins was good, I don't feel the narration was the problem, just a very slow story that never really seemed to take off for me.
It is the story of a family who runs several night clubs in 1920's London--between the wars. The understory/mystery is what is happening to the girls who go missing from these clubs and the detective who is determined to find out.
Because I wasn't connecting with it, my listening slowed way down. This caused me to loose track of the story, I tried the print but this helped only a little. There seemed a lot of writing for the story and the mystery so buried I often forgot about it till the author chose to remind me. I will say that Freda and Flora were a bright spot and I loved hearing about their adventures.
The thing I loved best was the author's note at the end. It explained her interest and reference used and made me wish I had liked it better. 2.5 rounded up.
The audio by Jason Watkins was good, I don't feel the narration was the problem, just a very slow story that never really seemed to take off for me.
July 2, 2023
4★
“‘Is it a hanging?’ an eager newspaper delivery boy asked no one in particular. He was short, just thirteen years old, and was jumping up and down in an effort to obtain a better view of whatever it was that had created the vaudeville atmosphere.
. . .
‘Not at all,’ the toff said, swaying affably. ‘It’s a cause for festivities. Old Ma Coker is being released.’
The boy thought that Old Ma Coker sounded like someone in a nursery rhyme.”
Nellie Coker, newly released from Holloway Prison, is the matriarch of the family that runs several successful dance halls in London. She could be nursery rhyme character, but more likely to be a wicked witch than a fairy godmother.
Years ago, her husband had gambled all the family money away, so Nellie had taken her four children and joined forces with a disreputable man called Jaeger, who had been running ‘tango teas’ during the war, but by 1918, people were ready to really party.
“It was an eye-opener for Nellie. She couldn’t fail to notice that many of the men went home at the end of the night with a dance hostess who had been a complete stranger to them a handful of hours earlier. ‘The young ladies get very good tips for that,’ Jaeger said phlegmatically. ‘Can’t blame ’em, can you?’
On Armistice night there had been couples – again strangers to each other – actually fornicating in the shadows in the dance hall. Outside in the streets an orgy was taking place. ‘Copulation,’ Jaeger said, even more phlegmatically. ‘Makes the world go round, don’t it? And better than killing each other. Fucking’s natural, innit?’”
He had no liquor licence, but did have tame police, and Nellie learned the trade well. When a young Irish girl, Maud, died of an opium overdose, Nellie dealt with it by suggesting a couple of army chaps take her body to the river to dispose of her.
I mention Maud, because Nellie is a bit of a card-reader and fortune-teller who not only believes in signs, she was frightened by Maud’s ghost when she was in prison, and now Maud turns up sporadically. When Nellie is welcomed back to the bar at the Crystal Club, she notices someone at one of the tables. Maud.
“There was a glass of absinthe in Maud’s hand and she raised it in a toast. Nellie raised her own glass in silent acknowledgement.
‘She’s definitely not herself,’ Templeton murmured to the barman as they watched Nellie toasting the empty air.”
As with many Atkinson novels, there are small elements of magical realism which add to the colour and atmosphere but which don’t detract from the main story. Around the Coker empire, and its police ‘associates’, clients, and suppliers, is a broad cast of characters ranging from young girls seeking their fortune in London to Distressed Gentlewomen living in a boarding house.
In this boarding house is my favourite character, Gwendolen Kelling, a former librarian who has gone to London with a tidy inheritance and is on the lookout for a couple of missing young girls, whose families want to know if she can find them in the dance schools somewhere.
Detective Chief Inspector John Frobisher of Scotland Yard has been trying to bring down Nellie Coker and also to find who’s been murdering the young girls whose bodies have been washing up in the river. So when Gwendolen – Miss Kelling – approaches him about the missing girls, he enlists her help in infiltrating the clubs with a view to solving both their cases.
Atkinson’s London in the 1920s is atmospheric and real. The contrast is stark between the shiny dresses and silver sandals of the hostesses and the poverty in which they live, in tiny, dingy rooms. Sometimes penniless, they often sleep on each other’s floors - a rough life.
The girls Gwendolen is looking for have their own story arcs, as do Nellie and her children. I admit I was sometimes confused about which young woman I was reading about, one of the girls or one of Nellie’s daughters.
I was fascinated to see this in the author’s note at the end:
“As anyone familiar with this period of history will recognize, inspiration for this novel comes from the life and times of Kate Meyrick, who for many years was the queen of Soho’s clubland. Her most famous club was the ‘43’ at 43 Gerrard Street, now in the heart of Chinatown. She was imprisoned several times in her career for breaking the licensing laws.”
The author gives many references to her research, but rather than use the dry facts, she’s jazzed it up for us.
“This is just a fraction of the background reading I did, but you can see that I largely eschewed traditional history books in favour of the gossipy, chattering kind. ‘Shrines of Gaiety’ is fiction, not history.”
And I’m glad it is. The title comes readymade from the clipping she shares from Kate Meyrick’s obituary, which ended:
“Her husband, Dr. F. R. Meyrick, to whom she had been reconciled on her deathbed, saw about him representatives of all those who had worshipped at the shrines of gaiety set up by his wife.”
I enjoyed the stories around Nellie Coker’s Shrines of Gaiety, even when I was confused, which is saying something!
“‘Is it a hanging?’ an eager newspaper delivery boy asked no one in particular. He was short, just thirteen years old, and was jumping up and down in an effort to obtain a better view of whatever it was that had created the vaudeville atmosphere.
. . .
‘Not at all,’ the toff said, swaying affably. ‘It’s a cause for festivities. Old Ma Coker is being released.’
The boy thought that Old Ma Coker sounded like someone in a nursery rhyme.”
Nellie Coker, newly released from Holloway Prison, is the matriarch of the family that runs several successful dance halls in London. She could be nursery rhyme character, but more likely to be a wicked witch than a fairy godmother.
Years ago, her husband had gambled all the family money away, so Nellie had taken her four children and joined forces with a disreputable man called Jaeger, who had been running ‘tango teas’ during the war, but by 1918, people were ready to really party.
“It was an eye-opener for Nellie. She couldn’t fail to notice that many of the men went home at the end of the night with a dance hostess who had been a complete stranger to them a handful of hours earlier. ‘The young ladies get very good tips for that,’ Jaeger said phlegmatically. ‘Can’t blame ’em, can you?’
On Armistice night there had been couples – again strangers to each other – actually fornicating in the shadows in the dance hall. Outside in the streets an orgy was taking place. ‘Copulation,’ Jaeger said, even more phlegmatically. ‘Makes the world go round, don’t it? And better than killing each other. Fucking’s natural, innit?’”
He had no liquor licence, but did have tame police, and Nellie learned the trade well. When a young Irish girl, Maud, died of an opium overdose, Nellie dealt with it by suggesting a couple of army chaps take her body to the river to dispose of her.
I mention Maud, because Nellie is a bit of a card-reader and fortune-teller who not only believes in signs, she was frightened by Maud’s ghost when she was in prison, and now Maud turns up sporadically. When Nellie is welcomed back to the bar at the Crystal Club, she notices someone at one of the tables. Maud.
“There was a glass of absinthe in Maud’s hand and she raised it in a toast. Nellie raised her own glass in silent acknowledgement.
‘She’s definitely not herself,’ Templeton murmured to the barman as they watched Nellie toasting the empty air.”
As with many Atkinson novels, there are small elements of magical realism which add to the colour and atmosphere but which don’t detract from the main story. Around the Coker empire, and its police ‘associates’, clients, and suppliers, is a broad cast of characters ranging from young girls seeking their fortune in London to Distressed Gentlewomen living in a boarding house.
In this boarding house is my favourite character, Gwendolen Kelling, a former librarian who has gone to London with a tidy inheritance and is on the lookout for a couple of missing young girls, whose families want to know if she can find them in the dance schools somewhere.
Detective Chief Inspector John Frobisher of Scotland Yard has been trying to bring down Nellie Coker and also to find who’s been murdering the young girls whose bodies have been washing up in the river. So when Gwendolen – Miss Kelling – approaches him about the missing girls, he enlists her help in infiltrating the clubs with a view to solving both their cases.
Atkinson’s London in the 1920s is atmospheric and real. The contrast is stark between the shiny dresses and silver sandals of the hostesses and the poverty in which they live, in tiny, dingy rooms. Sometimes penniless, they often sleep on each other’s floors - a rough life.
The girls Gwendolen is looking for have their own story arcs, as do Nellie and her children. I admit I was sometimes confused about which young woman I was reading about, one of the girls or one of Nellie’s daughters.
I was fascinated to see this in the author’s note at the end:
“As anyone familiar with this period of history will recognize, inspiration for this novel comes from the life and times of Kate Meyrick, who for many years was the queen of Soho’s clubland. Her most famous club was the ‘43’ at 43 Gerrard Street, now in the heart of Chinatown. She was imprisoned several times in her career for breaking the licensing laws.”
The author gives many references to her research, but rather than use the dry facts, she’s jazzed it up for us.
“This is just a fraction of the background reading I did, but you can see that I largely eschewed traditional history books in favour of the gossipy, chattering kind. ‘Shrines of Gaiety’ is fiction, not history.”
And I’m glad it is. The title comes readymade from the clipping she shares from Kate Meyrick’s obituary, which ended:
“Her husband, Dr. F. R. Meyrick, to whom she had been reconciled on her deathbed, saw about him representatives of all those who had worshipped at the shrines of gaiety set up by his wife.”
I enjoyed the stories around Nellie Coker’s Shrines of Gaiety, even when I was confused, which is saying something!
February 8, 2023
4+
"Crime pays. Fighting it doesn't."
London, 1926, a city of contrasts: dirty, crime-ridden, struggling to shake itself back to life, to normalcy. And the people, feeling a new freedom denied them for so long. Horrific memories of the war are best swept away, and what better way to do so than visiting a nightclub, a whole string of them to choose from. Nellie Coker, the matriarch of a not so law-abiding nightclub empire, wants you to enjoy yourself, add to her wealth. Inspired by the real life Kate Mayfield, Nellie is a self-made, self-serving, ruthless, and savvy businesswoman. Like empires throughout history, this one is in danger of crumbling, and there are many who would like to see its demise. None more so than John Frobisher, chief inspector of London’s police department. His most unlikely accomplice is Gwendolen Kelling, a former librarian who has come to the city searching for two missing girls from her hometown. Gwendolen would also like to add some spice to her dull existence. She is in the right place at the right time to get just that.
This novel is a fast-paced story of intrigue mixed with history. The spunky Ms. Kelling reminded me of Juliet Armstrong in Atkinson’s novel, Transcription. Witty and interesting characters are a trademark of this author’s writing and Shrines of Gaiety is no exception. Clever women, often deliciously nefarious, are peppered throughout. Nellie is the female version of John Boyne’s Maurice Swift. I enjoyed this novel immensely, although I had really hoped for a novel more like Life After Life and God in Ruins. Perhaps I won’t have to wait too long . Meanwhile, anything by this great writer will be worthwhile.
"Crime pays. Fighting it doesn't."
London, 1926, a city of contrasts: dirty, crime-ridden, struggling to shake itself back to life, to normalcy. And the people, feeling a new freedom denied them for so long. Horrific memories of the war are best swept away, and what better way to do so than visiting a nightclub, a whole string of them to choose from. Nellie Coker, the matriarch of a not so law-abiding nightclub empire, wants you to enjoy yourself, add to her wealth. Inspired by the real life Kate Mayfield, Nellie is a self-made, self-serving, ruthless, and savvy businesswoman. Like empires throughout history, this one is in danger of crumbling, and there are many who would like to see its demise. None more so than John Frobisher, chief inspector of London’s police department. His most unlikely accomplice is Gwendolen Kelling, a former librarian who has come to the city searching for two missing girls from her hometown. Gwendolen would also like to add some spice to her dull existence. She is in the right place at the right time to get just that.
This novel is a fast-paced story of intrigue mixed with history. The spunky Ms. Kelling reminded me of Juliet Armstrong in Atkinson’s novel, Transcription. Witty and interesting characters are a trademark of this author’s writing and Shrines of Gaiety is no exception. Clever women, often deliciously nefarious, are peppered throughout. Nellie is the female version of John Boyne’s Maurice Swift. I enjoyed this novel immensely, although I had really hoped for a novel more like Life After Life and God in Ruins. Perhaps I won’t have to wait too long . Meanwhile, anything by this great writer will be worthwhile.
December 29, 2022
Totally immersive experience entering the low life world of London in 1926. As with Peaky Blinders, this is a catchall of rascals, ne'er do wells, colorful characters that keep the pages flipping and the hours pleasantly going by safe in the knowledge that this represents a time gone by. A reminder that sin has a backstory. Still reeling from the aftereffects of the Great War, these many people also find themselves enjoying a release from the strictures of the Victorian and Edwardian eras in which young women make their way to the big city with varying results. Kate Atkinson has been compared to Dickens in her ability to keep so many plots and characters spinning, and the only reason I didn't award a full five stars is that I didn't feel this quite matched up to the Brodie quintet.
January 1, 2023
I enjoyed this, but the ending was a let-down. The story limped across the finish line instead of going out in a blaze of glory.
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June 16, 2024Отримала перекладацькі примірники "Храмів веселощів" Кейт Аткінсон - вони вже є в дикій природі! З іменем перекладачки на обкладинці!
Це легша і світліша Аткінсон, ніж, скажімо, "Руїни бога" чи "Життя за життям" - дуже сюжетний детектив/кримінальний роман у Лондоні після Першої світової війни для шанувальників "Гострих картузів" (хоча я якраз не дивилася "Гострих картузів", але роман мені дуже сподобався). Гадаю, для нас це читається оптимістичніше, ніж може читатися для англофонів. Дія розгортається в місті, яке тільки починає оговтуватися після Першої світової війни, серед людей, яким здається, що вони втратили вже все - і тепер вони, ці щасливчики, яким вдалося догребти до кінця війни і пандемії іспанки, намагаються взяти від життя все:
Це світ, де не діють жодні правила, забобони змішуються з кримінальними законами, будь-які спроби впровадити лад у цей хаос істеричних веселощів на тлі руїн тріщать по швах і несуть немалу загрозу для того, хто такими дурницями займається. Але ж постапокаліпсис означає, що апокаліпсис таки закінчується, і життя так чи так відновлюється, правда?
Королева нічних клубів намагається зберегти свою кримінальну імперію від наступу конкурентів і руки закону:
Бібліотекарка, що пройшла всю війну санітаркою і не знає, куди приткнутися тепер, розшукує зниклу молодшу сестру своєї подруги - й опиняється у вирі кримінального світу:
Тим часом чесний поліцейський розслідує низку загадкових убивств і бореться з корупцією в наскрізь прогнилій лондонській поліції:
Через збіг обставин шляхи усіх цих героїв (а ще амбітних дівчат, продажних копів, злочинців з принципами, злочинців без принципів і багатьох інших колоритних типажів) перетинаються, внаслідок чого зміниться кілька доль і карта кримінального світу Лондона.
Чи встигнуть вони запобігти новим смертям, захистити своїх людей і відстояти те, у що вірять? Ба більше, чи вдасться їм усім дожи��и до ранку в місті, де особи королівської крові збираються в одних клубах з найнебезпечнішими бандами, чутки про прокляття гробниці Тутанхамона переплітаються з кримінальною хронікою, річка переповнена торговим флотом і потопельниками, і всі веселяться до світанку, крім тих, хто уже загинув?
Це легша і світліша Аткінсон, ніж, скажімо, "Руїни бога" чи "Життя за життям" - дуже сюжетний детектив/кримінальний роман у Лондоні після Першої світової війни для шанувальників "Гострих картузів" (хоча я якраз не дивилася "Гострих картузів", але роман мені дуже сподобався). Гадаю, для нас це читається оптимістичніше, ніж може читатися для англофонів. Дія розгортається в місті, яке тільки починає оговтуватися після Першої світової війни, серед людей, яким здається, що вони втратили вже все - і тепер вони, ці щасливчики, яким вдалося догребти до кінця війни і пандемії іспанки, намагаються взяти від життя все:
"Танцювальна зала злетіла, як ракета: люди джазували й фокстротили під регтайм, доки не валилися з ніг. Війна билася в агонії, а людям, здається, тільки й хотілося, що повеселитися. Йшла весна 1918 року, всім уже в печінках сиділа економія".
Це світ, де не діють жодні правила, забобони змішуються з кримінальними законами, будь-які спроби впровадити лад у цей хаос істеричних веселощів на тлі руїн тріщать по швах і несуть немалу загрозу для того, хто такими дурницями займається. Але ж постапокаліпсис означає, що апокаліпсис таки закінчується, і життя так чи так відновлюється, правда?
Королева нічних клубів намагається зберегти свою кримінальну імперію від наступу конкурентів і руки закону:
"Усе, що Неллі робила, вона робила заради дітей, і то не з любові навіть, а з біології, з материнського імперативу плекати й захищати прийдешні покоління, щоб Кокери тривали у майбутнє аж до голосу сурмового і Страшного суду, хоча про той день Неллі воліла не думати. Не можна взяти й перекреслити всі здобутки, померши, відійшовши від справ чи давши дітям усе розтринькати. Вона мусить подбати про збереження своєї спадщини, навіть якщо для цього доведеться жертвувати собою чи кимось іншим. Але краще кимось іншим."
Бібліотекарка, що пройшла всю війну санітаркою і не знає, куди приткнутися тепер, розшукує зниклу молодшу сестру своєї подруги - й опиняється у вирі кримінального світу:
"У Йорку, який Ґвендолін полишила два дні тому, на схилах міських мурів ще квітнули нарциси, але у парках столиці вони давно відцвіли. Ґвендолін не бувала в Лондоні ще з похорону невідомого солдата, коли вони з матір’ю стояли в урочистому й похмурому натовпі, що вишикувався вздовж алеї до Вестмінстерського абатства. Вони, як і багато інших, прийшли в обладунку горя. Схлипів майже не чулося, тільки шелестіння, ніби на Лондон тихо опустилася велетенська зграя чорного птаства. Тоді ціле місто було сповите жалобною тишею, тож її тепер вразило по-весняному вбране місто".
Тим часом чесний поліцейський розслідує низку загадкових убивств і бореться з корупцією в наскрізь прогнилій лондонській поліції:
"Уже йдучи, він почув, як хтось у натовпі заволав:
— Злодій!
Так можна було сказати чи не про кожного з них, крім, можливо, чоловіка, що спостерігав за всім на відстані, із заднього сидіння неприкметної машини. То був головний інспектор-детектив Джон Фробішер — «Фробішер з Ярду», як його охрестили в журналі «Джон Булл», але не зовсім точно, бо його зараз приписали до відділку на Боу-Стрит у Ковент-ґардені в надії, що він там «усе перетрусить». Усі знали, що там процвіт��є корупція, от йому й доручили познаходити в цій череді паршивих овець".
Через збіг обставин шляхи усіх цих героїв (а ще амбітних дівчат, продажних копів, злочинців з принципами, злочинців без принципів і багатьох інших колоритних типажів) перетинаються, внаслідок чого зміниться кілька доль і карта кримінального світу Лондона.
Чи встигнуть вони запобігти новим смертям, захистити своїх людей і відстояти те, у що вірять? Ба більше, чи вдасться їм усім дожи��и до ранку в місті, де особи королівської крові збираються в одних клубах з найнебезпечнішими бандами, чутки про прокляття гробниці Тутанхамона переплітаються з кримінальною хронікою, річка переповнена торговим флотом і потопельниками, і всі веселяться до світанку, крім тих, хто уже загинув?
March 5, 2023
Shrines of Gaiety, an engrossing historical fiction novel taking place in 1926 postwar London amid the notorious and glittering nightlife in the nightclubs of Soho. However, much of London was still reeling from the trauma and the tremendous losses incurred in the Great War which is echoed throughout the narrative in different ways. But at the heart of this novel is the fictional Nellie Coker and her large brood of children that she is dedicated to elevating socially and economically as she oversees her five nightclubs - the Pixie, the Foxhole, the Sphinx, the Amethyst, and the Crystal Cup. Each of these clubs have a particular theme and caliber of clientele. This historical fiction perspective is somewhat in the same vein as the legendary Kate Meyrick who for many years was the queen of Soho's many nightclubs, the shrines of gaiety.
Shrines of Gaiety is a wonderfully intricate and engaging narrative with many characters, often given chapters from their point of view creating a much larger and expansive perspective as well as interconnected storylines. The core of the story centers around the notorious Nellie Coker and her family. But there is a dark underbelly to this dazzling and glittering world as there has been a rash of missing girls, many turning up in the Thames River just down from Tower Bridge in an area known as Dead Man's Hole. Detective Chief Inspector John Frobisher from the Bow Street precinct of Scotland Yard has been brought in to solve these mysterious disappearances and murders. With a unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson gives us a glimpse into a piece of that colorful history of the jazz age in 1920s London and told with her sardonic wit and sense of timing. It was a great book much different from her previous works.
Shrines of Gaiety is a wonderfully intricate and engaging narrative with many characters, often given chapters from their point of view creating a much larger and expansive perspective as well as interconnected storylines. The core of the story centers around the notorious Nellie Coker and her family. But there is a dark underbelly to this dazzling and glittering world as there has been a rash of missing girls, many turning up in the Thames River just down from Tower Bridge in an area known as Dead Man's Hole. Detective Chief Inspector John Frobisher from the Bow Street precinct of Scotland Yard has been brought in to solve these mysterious disappearances and murders. With a unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson gives us a glimpse into a piece of that colorful history of the jazz age in 1920s London and told with her sardonic wit and sense of timing. It was a great book much different from her previous works.
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September 30, 2023Жила-була і переклала, вийде в Нашому Форматі - урррра, нова Кейт Аткінсон!
Анотацію написала таку:
Новий історичний роман Кейт Аткінсон “Храми веселощів” запрошує читача в лабіринти нічного життя і кримінального світу міжвоєнного Лондона. У місті, яке тільки починає оговтуватися після Першої світової війни, ті, кому пощастило вціліти, намагаються взяти від життя все.
У лондонських нетрях королева нічних клубів намагається зберегти свою кримінальну імперію від наступу конкурентів і руки закону, бібліотекарка з драматичним минулим розшукує зниклих дітей, а чесний поліцейський розслідує низку загадкових убивств і бореться з корупцією в наскрізь прогнилій лондонській поліції. Через збіг обставин їхні шляхи перетинаються, внаслідок чого зміниться кілька доль і карта кримінального світу Лондона.
Чи встигнуть вони запобігти новим смертям, захистити своїх людей і відстояти те, у що вірять? Ба більше, чи вдасться їм усім дожити до ранку в місті, де особи королівської крові збираються в одних клубах з найнебезпечнішими бандами, чутки про прокляття гробниці Тутанхамона переплітаються з кримінальною хронікою, річка переповнена торговим флотом і потопельниками, і всі веселяться до світанку, крім тих, хто уже загинув?
Анотацію написала таку:
Новий історичний роман Кейт Аткінсон “Храми веселощів” запрошує читача в лабіринти нічного життя і кримінального світу міжвоєнного Лондона. У місті, яке тільки починає оговтуватися після Першої світової війни, ті, кому пощастило вціліти, намагаються взяти від життя все.
У лондонських нетрях королева нічних клубів намагається зберегти свою кримінальну імперію від наступу конкурентів і руки закону, бібліотекарка з драматичним минулим розшукує зниклих дітей, а чесний поліцейський розслідує низку загадкових убивств і бореться з корупцією в наскрізь прогнилій лондонській поліції. Через збіг обставин їхні шляхи перетинаються, внаслідок чого зміниться кілька доль і карта кримінального світу Лондона.
Чи встигнуть вони запобігти новим смертям, захистити своїх людей і відстояти те, у що вірять? Ба більше, чи вдасться їм усім дожити до ранку в місті, де особи королівської крові збираються в одних клубах з найнебезпечнішими бандами, чутки про прокляття гробниці Тутанхамона переплітаються з кримінальною хронікою, річка переповнена торговим флотом і потопельниками, і всі веселяться до світанку, крім тих, хто уже загинув?
September 29, 2022
Started out jaunty, good writing obviously, good storytelling, then quickly got boring! Jaunty rollicking tone quickly became annoying, just more of the same chapter after chapter page after page ….Ugh! Way too long and ending HORRIBLE! Most unsatisfying and stupid ending with the CONTINUED JOKEY attitude….made me feel disrespected for all the time I put in reading the darn book! Character development consisted of creating caricatures of mostly unlikeable characters!
November 2, 2022
I've awarded 5-star ratings to five of the nine books I’ve read by Kate Atkinson, so I guess it’s safe to say that she’s one of my best-loved authors. Shrines of Gaiety now joins Life After Life and A God in Ruins as my favorites by her.
Although the story spins around Nellie Coker, a notorious nightclub owner based on real-life club maven Kate Meyrick, we are introduced to a host of vivid, multi-faceted and very memorable characters – many with chapters of their own. The plot is fun, complex, and fast-paced. But as always, the thing that sets Kate Atkinson’s novels apart from everyone else is the way she plays with words - creating literary magic - as well as her wicked sense of humor which makes all her books a joy to read.
The Story: It’s 1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. The pages of Shrines of Gaiety are filled with runaway waifs, toffs, female pickpockets, “merry maid” hostesses, bent coppers, a melancholy detective, an intrepid librarian, a horde of ominous ruffians, showmen, hookers, and a surprisingly large number of corpses.
Although the story spins around Nellie Coker, a notorious nightclub owner based on real-life club maven Kate Meyrick, we are introduced to a host of vivid, multi-faceted and very memorable characters – many with chapters of their own. The plot is fun, complex, and fast-paced. But as always, the thing that sets Kate Atkinson’s novels apart from everyone else is the way she plays with words - creating literary magic - as well as her wicked sense of humor which makes all her books a joy to read.
The Story: It’s 1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. The pages of Shrines of Gaiety are filled with runaway waifs, toffs, female pickpockets, “merry maid” hostesses, bent coppers, a melancholy detective, an intrepid librarian, a horde of ominous ruffians, showmen, hookers, and a surprisingly large number of corpses.
October 2, 2022
An entertaining historical novel set in 1920’s London. There are lots of vivid characters and the story jumps from one to the other a lot. It took a while for the story to come together and often I was confused about the timelines (especially Freda and Florence). It mostly centres around a character called Nellie Coker who is just released from jail at the start of the novel. Based on a real person she runs a collection of nightclubs and her children are involved in running them. There’s police corruption, prostitution and drugs, murder and missing girls all of which should’ve made this novel much darker and I probably would’ve preferred it if it had been (more like Peaky Blinders maybe?) but the tone is light throughout and there’s a lot of references to The Green Hat, a novel I had never heard of before, making me wonder if I should have!
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July 22, 2024This book isn't for everyone, but having said that, I must also say that it's a real tour de force. The author carries off an omniscient narration worthy of Dickens and manages to make a multiplicity of characters so memorable that there was no necessity for this reader to go back to recall who this or that character actually was in the narrative. Her period of time is post World War I, during the 1920s when everyone is set upon gaiety and forgetting the horrors that have just been lived through. There are good guys and bad guys, a remarkable family of shady characters that one cannot help liking, several plucky young women, a librarian turned police informant, rotten policemen who get their due in the end, and noble characters just trying to do their best by everyone else. While the story is complicated, the author never loses sight of the threads that are pulling the reader through the story. It is, as a result, incredibly readable. So while it's not a thrilling page turner, it has no intention of attempting to be one. It is, instead, a look at a period of time during which life on the edge seemed to be the only kind of life worth living. I do recommend it.
March 10, 2023
Shrines of Gaiety (2022) is the first book I have read by Kate Atkinson. That it all takes place in the night clubs of London’s Soho between the wars was very appealing. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be sampling more of her work.
I was beguiled by the large cast and various different narrative strands.
At the end of the book, Kate Atkinson reveals that the story was inspired by the autobiography of Kate Meyrick, a real-life queen of clubs. Like Nellie, her fictional avatar, she had two daughters educated at Cambridge, and was also imprisoned for breaking the licensing laws. This, and the other works, she consulted, paid off as Shrines of Gaiety is imbued with convincing period detail.
The ending is a little anti-climactic after such a wonderful set up however this was not something that overly bothered me. We also get a final section on what happened to the characters afterwards, something I always appreciate.
Shrines of Gaiety is a cracking novel full of great characters, charm, a compelling plot and convincing details.
I am really looking forward to reading more of her work.
4/5
The #1 national bestselling, award-winning author of Life after Life transports us to the dazzling London of the Roaring Twenties in a whirlwind tale of corruption, seduction, and debts that have come due.
1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.
The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho’s gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.
With her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson gives us a window in a vanished world. Slyly funny, brilliantly observant, and ingeniously plotted, Shrines of Gaiety showcases the myriad talents that have made Atkinson one of the most lauded writers of our time.
I was beguiled by the large cast and various different narrative strands.
At the end of the book, Kate Atkinson reveals that the story was inspired by the autobiography of Kate Meyrick, a real-life queen of clubs. Like Nellie, her fictional avatar, she had two daughters educated at Cambridge, and was also imprisoned for breaking the licensing laws. This, and the other works, she consulted, paid off as Shrines of Gaiety is imbued with convincing period detail.
The ending is a little anti-climactic after such a wonderful set up however this was not something that overly bothered me. We also get a final section on what happened to the characters afterwards, something I always appreciate.
Shrines of Gaiety is a cracking novel full of great characters, charm, a compelling plot and convincing details.
I am really looking forward to reading more of her work.
4/5
The #1 national bestselling, award-winning author of Life after Life transports us to the dazzling London of the Roaring Twenties in a whirlwind tale of corruption, seduction, and debts that have come due.
1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time.
The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho’s gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.
With her unique Dickensian flair, Kate Atkinson gives us a window in a vanished world. Slyly funny, brilliantly observant, and ingeniously plotted, Shrines of Gaiety showcases the myriad talents that have made Atkinson one of the most lauded writers of our time.
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