Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

I enjoyed this book far more than others I have read by Atkinson. It tells the story of Ruby Lennox, starting off as a young girl whose state of affairs has been created by generations of her family. The book switches between Ruby's life and her understanding of it back to her mother's and grandmother's generations and how they have impacted on the existence Ruby is offered. There is a lot to be seen from the way the lives of these women are constructed around typical gender roles, while Alice, Ruby's grandmother spent her days cleaning, mending, taking care of the children and housekeeping whily Bunty, Ruby's mother spends her days doing what can only be seen as a mask for what her mother did, which in a different era becomes a conception of nothing. The parts of the book that go into Ruby's genealogy and how her grandmother and mother came to be the women they are is detailed in "footnotes."

We watch Ruby grow into a young woman throughout the book. Seeing the perceived mistakes of her sister who she goes for years without seeing, she constructs an understanding about the world from her experiences as well as the experiences of her maternal family, where it seems male figures have been markedly absent. The book is a reversal of the age-old genealogy through patriarchy as Ruby discovers and understand the world primarily and distinctly through females.

This book is written amazingly, the language is beautifully done and the plot is effectively woven through genealogical history. I far preferred it to two other books I have read by the author and I think this work is a masterpiece.