| Human Croquet |  | Author: Kate Atkinson
Creator: Susan Jameson
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £49.95
Buy New: £40.00
You Save: £9.95 (20%)
New (1) Used (1) from £39.99
Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 2385892
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: New Ed
Number Of Items: 10
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 7 x 1.6
ISBN: 0754094855
EAN: 9780754094852
ASIN: 0754094855
Publication Date: February 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new. Immediate dispatch from UK
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Fascinating start to the novel but flagged a bit in the middle May 27, 2008
Janie U (England)
I enjoyed this book particularly the start and finish, although found that the middle section seemed to drag a little but couldn't really decide the reason.
The location and period setting at the beginning is very unusual for a novel and worked very well in the context of the rest of the book.
I loved that, as the reader, I felt completely inside Isobel's head with all the little thoughts and worries that she has, along with the way that she deals with the time travelling events that seem to happen around her.
Time is an important theme of the book and the jumping between Present and Past throughout the book gives support to Isobel's strange experiences of time travel.
I enjoyed the technique of showing Eliza's speech in italics which had the effect of showing her as a magical, mysterious person.
The tone of the book seems to change in the middle and it became more franctic and "madder". Once I changed my approach to the reading then I enjoyed the ending but I did find the change unsettling at first.
 Even The Bard makes an appearance... October 17, 2007
V. A. Crouch (Kent, UK)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is one of my all-time favourite novels. With characters I can really relate too and wonderful situations that made me laugh out loud, this book cleverly weaves several alternate worlds together in such a style that you may be left wondering which was the "real" story.
But whether you can work it out or not, you cannot fail to be caught up in a world of time-travel, Shakespeare, magic and a pinch of teen angst from the perspective of Isobel, who has to deal with a missing mother, a crazy step-mum, a brother who communicates with aliens and the constant nagging worry that she herself is going slightly mad. The underlying plot of a missing mother she can barely remember is a serious one that works well alongside the other, strange going-on in Isobel's world and one that will tug at the heart-strings.
'Call me Isobel (it's my name) . . . ' February 13, 2007
Sephie Poulter
12 out of 17 found this review helpful
This book was amazing, and written in such a way that it was very easy to read - succinct, but at the same time embellished, and alternating between the first and third person. The heroine Isobel is a very well-formed misfit teenager - fanciful, innocent and poignant.
the book is full of mystery, some of which the characters themselves never solve - only the readers. It is tragic but embellished with humour, and may have the underlying message that life goes on. there is some very morbid humour ('dark' humour) in it, some of which made me laugh and then feel that it was inappropriate to do so considering what I was reading - this is the author's ploy.
It would be impossible to anticipate the ending, not only what's going to happen but what has happened (as the book alternates between past and present) it is a fusion of teenage life and what adolescents experience, as well as subjects such as death, incest and abuse and murder - all spoken of in an almost casual manner.
I can identify with Isobel - not for the death and drama part, but I can imagine myself saying something that she would say. As an author i was very inspired!
And one more thing. Usually I hate it when a book ends with 'and then I woke up and it was all a dream' - but in this book you can easily see how reality ties with hallucination, and how incidents from the past can be subconciously dredged up.
A very good book. Serious but amusing and fanciful. Would be on my top ten list.
Amazing book June 13, 2004
38 out of 42 found this review helpful
Human Croquet is about a girl, Isobel Fairfax, who lives with her father who left her when she was eight(?) and then came back, seven years later, Vinny, who's her emotionless and grumpy aunt, her stepmother, Debbie, who's nearly the same age as her, and her alien-obsessed brother. Her mother disappeared little before her father left her and her brother.
Human Croquet is a wonderfully bizarre book, full of twists and fascinating, deep characters. It is confusing in a good way, and when I finished it, I just felt like reading it again to notice every single little detail that, if I'd been more clever, would've maybe given the ending away.
I'll have to start looking for Kate Atkinson's other books
An usual style for a very british novel September 14, 2003
Elizabeth Taylor (France)
20 out of 25 found this review helpful
Its hard to describe what this book is about other than a chunk of the life of an individual at a particular place in time. The herione of our tale is a teenage girl filled with self-doubt about herself and her looks with a strange bag of misfit friends, a brother who is obsessed with aliens and bizarre events and who lusts after the best looking boy in town. Her rather strange world is described in very simple language like an old fashioned fairy tale so we hear about her aunt vinny and her cats, the creepy lodger and her parents. The main thread of the book is how the disappearance of her mother haunts both herself and her brother and how they believe this has landed them in the frankly surrealist world they live in. There are also other characters in the pot, the great forest which once dominated the landscape of england and some of the major characters that lead to the creation of the town.Throughout the book we hear the voice of the girl describing the events around her with an innocent eye, however, these chapters are interspersed with flashbacks during which we discover over time the truth behind all the characters past and present. Her father the ex-war hero, her mother who she sees as a beautiful elusive figure, her step-mother, her grandmother and so on. In doing so we receive a very different view which is far from innocent on the desires and weaknesses of the characters and a world a lot darker, more real and much more dirty than hers. Some of the book is very funny, and the characterisations told in simple language very interesting but if you're looking for humour be aware that this is a typical english thing, a black comedy with some sad truths. It is a very different book, in its style and approach and certainly grips you with a desire to know the truth behind all the people you meet and I stayed up late at night reading away. Its probably not everyones cup of tea and I'm not sure I'd want to read lots of this type of writing but its unusual, funny and worth the investment for long plane rides and train rides.
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