Started Early Took My Dog A Novel Kate Atkinson by Kate Atkinson 9780316066747, 0316066745 instant download after payment.

Kate Atkinson's Started Early Playlist

I always make a compilation tape for Jackson for each book. I find it’s rather like a meditation, something I come back to on a regular basis when I’m writing because in some mysterious way it reminds me of the essence of each particular book. He, and I, like country music but that’s quite a broad church. Sometimes it’s apparent to me why I’ve chosen certain tracks and at other times I’m not at all sure of the reason. There are a lot of songs about dead mothers and orphaned children for Case Histories and When Will There Be Good News, and more than a few about death and heaven in Started Early. (Jackson’s taste is strictly on the melancholic side.) At the moment I’m writing a book that begins in 1910 and goes through the Second World War so just now I’m listening to music from the Twenties and Thirties, rather odd and not entirely to my taste. I’m looking forward to Glenn Miller and the Andrew Sisters--not Jackson’s taste at all! --Kate Atkinson

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Author One-on-One: Kate Atkinson and Lee Child

In this Amazon exclusive, we brought together authors Kate Atkinson and Lee Child and asked them to interview each other.

Lee Child: This is the fourth Jackson Brodie book. It's starting to look suspiciously like a series! What brought you back this time?

Kate Atkinson: I never intended to write more than the first one -- which was Case Histories -- but I wrote it so quickly -- which was highly unusual for me -- that I somehow felt as if I hadn't finished with the form and the characters. And then it became the 'power of three' and I thought "one more" and then I found I had unfinished business for Jackson and it became four. I honestly don't know how that happened. There is something seductive about the shape of a detective novel, or at any rate of using a detective in a novel, because it gives you a ready-- made dynamic and a reason for introducing characters to whom interesting things happen as opposed to, say, starting with a whole load of people in a bank or an office and thinking so what are their stories, and what's going to happen to them? (Although, even as I'm writing that, I'm thinking oh, actually that sounds quite intriguing).

Child: Your career so far shows you're not afraid to write whatever you choose. It's as if you've been in and out of several different rooms in the house. Is that fun?

Atkinson: Yes! I get bored quite easily but also there are so many ways of writing out there to explore. To run with the house analogy -- I love houses and there are so many lovely ones that I'll never have a chance to live in because life is short and so is money. It's the same with different styles and genres of writing. I hope before I die I manage to write a romantic novel (because I never write any kind of romance) and I would love to be able to write a children's book, but I think they are the most challenging of all.

Child: Is it easier to write the Brodie books than the others? Or harder?

Atkinson: I found the Brodie books easy to begin with, and then very difficult to finish. I haven't actually finished with him yet but at the moment he's taking a holiday somewhere restful. I found the new book really hard but I think I'd just run out of steam with the character. I'm writing something completely different at the moment and it's amazing how much energy I have for it and what a relief it feels! I think the next time I re-visit Jackson it will be with that same kind of enthusiasm -- and he (and I) will be all the better for having taken a break from each other!

Child: You write about Yorkshire with a certain exasperated affection. You were born there, right?

Atkinson: I am actually a patron of the Yorkshire Tourist Board! I think it's true of everyone in exile -- I live in Edinburgh -- no matter how mild the form, that you have a longing for what you have left behind.

I think the older you get the stronger that is -- not so much nostalgia, but a feeling that your heart is in another place. I may be kidding myself there and, like Jackson, there are certain parts of Yorkshire that I would never want to re-visit, but like him I think there are places in North Yorkshire that do mark it out as God's Own county. (I don't know why Yorkshire people are so fervently patriotic about their county!) My whole family is settled in Scotland so that kind of prevents me from moving back although I dream about that little cottage in the Dales, Aga in the kitchen, sheep bleating outside the window...

(Photo of Kate Atkinson © Martin Hunter; photo of Lee Child © Sigrid Estrada;)

Starred Review. British author Atkinson's magnificently plotted fourth novel featuring Jackson Brodie (after When Will There Be Good News?) takes the "semi-retired" PI back to his Yorkshire hometown to trace the biological parents of Hope McMasters, a woman adopted by a couple in the 1970s at age two. Jackson is faced with more questions than answers when Hope's parents aren't in any database nor is her adoption on record. In the author's signature multilayered style, she shifts between past and present, interweaving the stories of Tracy Waterhouse, a recently retired detective superintendent now in charge of security at a Leeds mall, and aging actress Tilly Squires. On the same day that Jackson and Tilly are in the mall, Tracy makes a snap decision that will have lasting consequences for everyone. Atkinson injects wit even in the bleakest moments—such as Jackson's newfound appreciation for poetry, evoked in the Emily Dickinson–inspired title—yet never loses her razor-sharp edge. (Mar.)
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• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Reagan Arthur / Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (October 6, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316066745
• ISBN-13: 978-0316066747
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.2 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)

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• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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77 Reviews

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4 star:

(24)

3 star:

(10)

2 star:

(9)

1 star:

(5)

Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (77 customer reviews)

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100 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Early start and sustained effort needed, September 26, 2010

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Hande Z (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Started Early, Took My Dog (Kindle Edition)

This was a clever book with a clever, well-thought story and plot. It involved many characters, the main ones were Tracy Waterhouse, a policewoman who rescued a child, and Jackson Brodie, a private investigator who rescued a dog, and Matilda (Tilly) an old, senile actress who could hardly rescue herself. This is not an easy book to read, and certainly not one to read over weeks because one would lose focus and thus the connections that were to come together in the end. It was written with a stream-of-consciousness style of writing and so has a number of distractions thrown in which the reader has to figure out how they were relevant to the story. Furthermore, the author juxtaposed events so that one has to keep track of the dates in order to follow the clues and the story. I gave this book only three stars because it was not the kind of writing I enjoy reading; but to those who enjoy the challenge of a "warped" story and do not mind stream-of-consciousness narratives, they might give this 4 or 5 stars.

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85 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "For the want of a nail..." - Atkinson is always a wonderful read, September 8, 2010

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L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Started Early, Took My Dog (Kindle Edition)

First Sentence: Leeds: `Motorway City of the Seventies'.

Spur of the moment decisions lead to life-altering consequences. A child and a dog link characters in an expected way that leads to injury and death.

Atkinson has created several mysteries within one story in this latest outing, and although Jackson is the continuing thread between the books, he is certainly not the only significant character.

One element I so enjoy about Atkinson's books is that her characters are somewhat abnormal for being no realistically normal. Brodie is an ex-cop, ex-PI with a number of failed or failing relationships. It is nice to learn much more about him and his background here. Tracy is a long way from being the attractive, sexy, young cop so common now. Tilly is an elderly actress with early dementia.

I find it almost impossible to describe this book. The writing is clever but without feeling contrived. Her voice and humor are delightful. There are coincidences, but they are deliberate and play upon the theme. The theme, which comes from the traditional poem "For want of a nail..." is brilliantly played out.

I did not find this the easiest book to read due to time and POV changes. It was a bit slow getting into, but it was never boring. I am always fascinated by Atkinson's writing and I love her titles. All I can say is that this is a book which can stand on its own and is very well worth reading.

STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG (PI-Jackson Brodie-England-Cont) - VG
Atkinson, Kate - 4th in series
Doubleday, ©2010, UK Hardcover - ISBN: 9780385608022

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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Everyone has a killer inside them just waiting to get out, some more patient than others.", March 26, 2011

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Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Started Early, Took My Dog: A Novel (Hardcover)

(4.5 stars) However good Kate Atkinson's three previous Jackson Brodie novels have been, they were just the warm-up for this one. Though they are often called "mysteries," Atkinson's novels are far more character-driven than the norm, and more literary in execution-intriguing on several levels simultaneously. In this novel, Jackson Brodie becomes a broader character, his inner life at least as important as the plot with which it intersects. Brodie has always had a problem with alcohol and women, with whom he has always looked for escape from some of the underlying miseries of his life. Married twice and "almost married" to a woman who fleeced him, Brodie can be forgiven for being cynical about people and their motives. The one characteristic which keeps Brodie going is his outrage about the injustices he sees around him, with his strongest calumny directed toward those who take advantage of children.

In Started Early, Took My Dog, which takes place in Leeds, West Yorkshire, several plot lines begin before the entrance of Brodie. The starving, almost dead child of a prostitute is found in an apartment with the body of the mother in 1975, and the child is later adopted. The other story lines take place in the present. Two thugs have arranged to kidnap a child in Munich. A female former police superintendent in Leeds saves a child from being abused, then offers to buy the child from the prostitute who has been dragging her through the streets. A senile actress in a TV serial witnesses something she does not understand. Amid these beginning plot lines, Jackson Brodie sees a small dog being horribly abused by a muscleman and saves the dog, which quickly wiggles its way into his life and heart.

What follows is a complex story of identity, including Jackson Brodie's own identity, as characters who were orphaned and/or adopted try to understand the past and make connections. Brodie himself has never recovered from the death of his sister Niamh, one of several deaths which decimated his family before he had even reached his teen years. Jackson becomes involved in the search for truth regarding the other plot lineswhen he is hired to try to find the parents of one of these adoptees.

Atkinson's irrepressible humor comes through in her style: She includes more literary references per page, often humorously, than most other writers have in an entire novel. These fit into the narrative so smoothly that it is easy to overlook them. In one ten-page sequence near the beginning, for example, Atkinson gives brief quotations from Cormac McCarthy, Emily Dickinson (who seems to be a favorite throughout), and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and his Sonnet 73 on death. Birth, love, aging, and death are constant themes here as several adults, including Jackson Brodie, try to come to terms with their lives as children and find peace. Some, like Jackson Brodie, still have hope--"Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul/And sings the tune without the words/ and never stops--at all." (Emily Dickinson)

Jackson Brodie #1: Case Histories: A Novel
Brodie #2: One Good Turn: A Novel
Brodie #3: When Will There Be Good News?: A Novel

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