My Amazon and Goodreads review of Transcription: A Novel (Rating 3) – Slapstick When Sincerity is Wanted. Kate Atkinson seamlessly blends fact and fiction in Transcription: A Novel, a WW II tale of innocence and espionage. As a writer of historical fiction myself (see my Amazon author page and my Goodreads author page), I appreciate the deftness with which she blurs the two. At first, the wry humor of the young narrator, Julia Armstrong, is engaging. The cast of absurd characters makes one relish the folly of their treasonous and/or patriotic endeavors. However, the frivolous tone fails when events turn truly grim. After her unrelenting flippancy, Julia’s claims of distress or anxiety ring hollow. She remains too distant from the horrors she has wrought. Even when she herself is in danger, she appears to be narrating a spy movie for her own and the readers’ entertainment, rather than recounting an authentic drama. What the reader wants is sincerity, not slapstick.
