Whoa, Nellie
Shrines of Gaiety Kate Atkinson Doubleday
A sprawling and sparkling tale set in 1936 London, Kate Atkinson's latest, Shrines of Gaiety, is overrun with flappers, gangsters, shilling-adance girls, disillusioned war veterans, crooked coppers, a serial killer, absinthe cocktails, teenage runaways, snazzy roadsters and a bevy of Bright Young Things.
How else but Dickensian to describe the way Atkinson not only musters up a city full of characters but also binds them together through coincidence and hidden relationships?
The central figure is tough entrepreneur Nellie Coker. Her five nightclubs range from the classy Amethyst to the louche Sphinx, the novel's omniscient narrator tells us.
“She didn't want any for herself but she was more than happy to provide it for others, for a sum. There was nothing wrong with having a good time as long as she didn't have to have one herself.”
Those in Nellie's nightclubs include princes and pickpockets; mobsters and movie stars. Nellie's life ricochets from poverty to riches to prison and more.
Shrines of Gaiety opens as a crowd stands outside Holloway prison awaiting Nellie's release. The charges that put her behind bars for months aren't important. What troubles Nellie is the fact that someone inside her criminal organization dropped the dime on her.
Nellie's eldest son, Niven, is not a suspect: He has little apparent interest in anything beyond his loyal Alsatian hound and snazzy Hispano Suiza car. But Niven's aloof temperament begins to crack after he rescues a young woman from a mugging.
Gwendolen Kelling is a different creature from the showgirls Niven sees in his mother's nightclubs. She volunteered as a nurse during the war and became a librarian. Liberated by a windfall after her mother's death, she has travelled in search of her best friend's little sister, Freda, who has run away. Thanks to our omniscient narrator, we already know Freda is dancing for tips from the sweaty, groping customers at Nellie's clubs.
A reader could become as punch drunk on Atkinson's complex intersecting plot lines, but the pleasure is worth the mental hangover.