A dazzling collection of eleven interconnected stories from the bestselling, award-winning author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life which offer the gimlet eye and delightful social critique that have made Atkinson one of the most lauded writers of our time.
In this brilliant volume, nothing is quite as it seems. We meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; a lost man who bets on a horse that may–or may not–have spoken to him. Everything that readers love about the novels of Kate Atkinson is here–the inventiveness, the verbal felicity, the sharp observations on human nature, and the deeply satisfying emotional wallop.
Witty and wise, with subtle connections between the stories, Normal Rules Don’t Apply is a startling and funny feast for the imagination, stories with the depth and bite to create their own fully-formed worlds.
Normal Rules Don’t Apply: Stories
Kate Atkinson
Horses, dogs, sheep, and swans are just the beginning of the animals featured in Kate Atkinson’s latest collection of stories called NORMAL RULES DON’T APPLY, released today.
Eleven stories with mini interconnected universes, bite-sized plots, and a sprinkling of characters, here are the stories:
THE VOID
DOGS IN JEOPARDY
BLITHE SPIRIT
SPELLBOUND
THE INDISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE
SHINE, PAMELA! SHINE!
EXISTENTIAL MARGINALIZATION
CLASSIC QUEST 17- CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
PUPPIES AND RAINBOWS
GENE-SIS
WHAT IF?
Reading a short story or novella by an author you haven’t read before is one of the best ways to introduce yourself to their writing style. However, not every author who writes full-length novels is suited to effectively tell a story in a short number of words.
In NORMAL RULES DON’T APPLY, Kate Atkinson does this very well. Each story is expertly edited, leaving out the unnecessary. Each story is complete and a part of a bigger universe. I loved that added element.
The story SPELLBOUND felt otherworldly and magical, whereas THE VOID felt horrifying and catastrophic. My favorite story GENE-SIS plays with religion, has its own personality, and features one of my favorite characters from the collection-Kitty.
NORMAL RULES DON’T APPLY was a fun and engaging read. It’s out today and I recommend it!
Thanks to Penguin Random House Audio for the advanced listening copy!
NORMAL RULES DON’T APPLY…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
CJ Hauser uses her now-beloved title essay as an anchor around which to explore, through excavation of both her own personal and larger familial hope chest of ‘love stories, ‘ the narratives of romantic love we are taught and which we tell ourselves, and the need to often rewrite those narratives to find an accurate version of ourselves in them. Covering ground ranging from her and her relatives’ own romantic pasts to the much wider natural, supernatural, and cultural worlds, CJ relates the family legacies and lessons she imbibed in her youth, and the relationships formed in echo of those lessons, which helped to shape her early understanding of love and life.
Emerging from the rigorous honesty and radical empathy of these twenty pieces, CJ relinquishes the idea of a single, permanent love story–in favor of the metaphor of a happy haunted house as a space that contains many stories, many pasts, and multiple histories. These are hopeful pieces, which address the pain and complication of living in the present while being informed by things that have happened in one’s past, and the kind of energy and spirit necessary to attempt love, again and again.
The Review
THE CRANE WIFE
By CJ Hauser
I was first drawn to this book because of its title. I wanted to know what a crane wife was.
I’m not sure I’m any closer to understanding that than I was when I picked up this book but I am a lot further than you are.
So let’s get you caught up.
The namesake story, THE CRANE WIFE, based on a story of nocturnal unbecoming, was amongst my favorites.
I found it to be honest and creative and I have vivid pictures in my mind now of featherless birds and bald but happy and wild women.
I also enjoyed the small story titled HOPE 2008. It was short story #23 within the smaller rapid-fire chapters titled: Twenty Seven Love Stories.
I still HOPE!
But the one that got my heart and gave me chills and made me feel complete and whole was UNCOUPLING.
That essay was perfection.
I think the beauty of the collection is the creative structures of the story and the textured nature of the memoir. There are metaphors and parables and folklore tales sprinkled throughout making it feel like storytelling.
THE CRANE WIFE…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday Books Doubleday for this advanced copy!
