DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Case Histories |
1. The three cases that
open Case
Histories are at first quite separate, and leave you
wondering how Atkinson is going to pull it all together into one story.
You might discuss whether she is successful at doing that—and how.
2. Case
Histories has three unsolved crimes and has a private eye as
hero. Kate Atkinson is known as a 'literary writer' and won the
Whitbread Prize for her first novel, Behind
the Scenes at the Museum. How is Case Histories different from a
traditional detectvie novel—or is it?
3. Jackson believes "that his job was to help people be good rather
than punish them for being bad." Another discussion point would be
whether you think he is a moral character, and how you feel the
revelation of the tragedy in his own past illuminates his actions in the
novel.
4. To Jackson, it seems as if everyone he encounters has lost
someone or something. One of Kate Atkinson's recurrent themes is that of
lost children. In spite of her wicked sense of humour, she creates an
overwhelming sense of tension in this novel. Is it that this theme
speaks directly to the lost child deep inside every one of us?
5. "Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told
lies and the implied there were endings when in reality there were no
endings, everything just went on and on and on." Is Kate Atkinson being
mischievous here, or is this statement true of this novel? |
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