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by: Kate Atkinson  List Price: $13.99 Amazon.com's Price: $11.19 You Save: $2.80 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813 EAN: 9780316159371 ISBN: 0316159379 Label: Back Bay Books Manufacturer: Back Bay Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 288 Publication Date: October 27, 2004 Publisher: Back Bay Books Studio: Back Bay Books Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: Arthur is a precocious and inquisitive 8-year-old boy whose mother is a B-list celebrity more concerned with the state of her bank account than with her son's development. With a new baby on the way, Arthur's mother hires--or is she hired by?--an enigmatic young nanny named Missy, who takes Arthur under her wing. In pursuit of art, culture, and finally Arthur's own missing father, Missy introduces him to a world he never knew existed. It's Kate Atkinson's world, and Arthur is just one of its inhabitants--hidden connections link him to an entire constellation of characters who live unpredictably between reality and fantasy. The same wry humor and keen observation that have won Atkinson critical and popular acclaim make her new book crackle with life. Equally inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses and Prada, by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Barbie, NOT THE END OF THE WORLD is further proof of Kate Atkinson's formidable powers as a writer of comedy and substance. Average Rating:
 Rating: - QuirkyI don't usually read short stories but picked this up because of the classical imagery. Myths pervade the book's intertwined stories, which are all jumbled between reality and fantasy. I couldn't stop reading the book, but wanted to know more about the characters. I would ask Kate Atkinson particularly to carry on the story of Meredith with her cloak of everlasting life! Rating:  - Witty and WonderfulI'm not normally a short story fan, preferring something "meatier", but I gobbled up this collection like a treat. I've re-discovered Kate Atkinson with her last two wonderful "mystery" novels, "Case Histories" and "One Good Turn" and am now going back to her earlier work. This collection is sharp, surprising, very witty, intelligent and thought-provoking. Rating: - Strange and layered bookThe more I think about Not the End of the World, the more the book seems to mean to me. Generally, the progress works the other way around. It says a lot about Atkinson as a writer how powerfully the book manages to keep a hold on my mind. Atkinson creates a layered confection of characters both real and mythic. They live in a time just bordering the apocalypse. The world in which they live is often shallow and full of troubles, but is beautiful in contrast to the great pit of nothing ... Read More Rating:  - Too clever, or not clever enough?It wasn't until I read the reviews here about "Not the End of the World" that I "got" what Kate Atkinson was trying to do. I went back and re-read the book with an eye toward the myths and the wrapping together of several characters across different stories. To be honest, even the second time around I was not that impressed with the stories. Yes, Kate Atkinson has a unique voice, one I loved in "Behind the Scenes at the Museum". Here, though, I felt like there was an inside conceit that was inaccessible ... Read More Rating: - An Anthology Painting the Picture of the End of the WorldNot the End of the World is an anthology of loosely related pieces. These stories all drift around the common theme of the End of the World. Whether it is on a global scale, or simply changing one's path through life, these World Ending events are never addressed directly. Like so many people, the characters in "Not the End of the World," rarely meet their fate directly. Then again, events that often appear to be the End of the World are not really the end of the world at all. In keeping with ... Read More 
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