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WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS? - Coggle Diagram
WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS?
Plot
30 years ago Joanna Hunter’s entire family were murdered in front of her
Today, Reggie chase works for Joanna Hunter, looking after her baby
While Reggie is at the house of her elderly friend and tutor, Ms Macdonald Jackson Brodie is in a near fatal train crash caused by Ms Macdonald , and Jo Hunter goes missing with no explanation.
While Jackson is recovering in hospital as Andrew Decker Reggie’s begins investigating Jo’s disappearance; questioning Neil and asking Louise Munroe for her help
When Jackson recovers, Reggie ‘hires’ him and they eventually find Jo hunter
Andrew deckers release had nothing to do with Joannas disappearance. At the end of the novel Jackson discovered his wife has taken all his money and disappeared and finds Decker dead in his flat
Marcus is fatally shot by David Needler
Context
‘Literary hybrid’ novel- NY times
gulf war and role of British army
A-levels
Quotes
Chapter title ‘Harvest’
‘Run Joanna run’
Repeated throughout the novel, trauma and victim hood follows you your whole life
Survived because she obeyed her mother but has grown to learn there are no rule s
Young Joanna followed rules to a fault
‘Carotid artery’
Billy and Joanna have different backgrounds and credit but this shows a common criminality
‘Her whole life [was] and act of bereavement’
Compensation for her lost childhood
Like Reggie had to grow up faster than most
‘The baby’- acknowledging that he symbolizes a reality much bigger than he is. An abstraction rather than a person- goes to lengths to shield him from his surroundings
She has tried to create a real life but her past hampers its ability to feel real- she is too aware that her career husband and child were decisions made to make up for her past- she helps people at work then comes back to a home where only the baby needs her
‘She’d spent 30 years running form one nightmare only to crash headlong into another’
Would do anything to protect her son from the same trauma she experienced
‘Reggie wasn’t going to be that person who presumed’
Quickness to come to others’ defense and detective-like qualities
‘She preferred the gut thrilling sound of an emergency siren’ - Louise
Ill-at-ease when among rural scenery- loses her sense of self, conventional lifestyle leaves her disorientated e.g marriage’
She suspected that if push cam to shove, Joanna hunter could dissemble with the best of them’ - Louise on Joanna
Louise’s fixation on Joanna and Alison
Louise vs Reggie’s reasoning for their admiration of Joanna
Atkinson’ s characters view each other through the lens of their own weaknesses
‘She had been found once. She would be found again’ - Jackson on Joanna
Jackson’s past quietly haunts the novel
Shows Shepperd instinct
Initially helped Reggie to get out of hospital but then placed Joanna back in her initial situation- highlights his compassion but also depth of trauma- finding Joanna was cathartic for him
‘ I didn’t pull the trigger’
The novel doesn’t answer why Joanna went to visit decker- the quest to understand people will only take you so far - peoples deepest drives defy rationality or categorization
Leaves pressing questions answered suggesting people are mysteries to both themselves and each other
Methods
Humour
Multiple plots and settings
References to other literary works
Multiple focalisers
Alternating third person limited
Coincidence
Makes a point about the significance of fate and destiny
Jackson is officer that initially saves Joanna
Ms MacDonald causes train crash
Reggie house sits for Ms Macdonald and looks after Joanna’s baby
Decker happens to swap identities with Jackson
Louise and Jacksons history- both involved with Joanna
Feminist narrative- female victims aren’t helpless but Jackson is
Optimism
Setting
Themes
Coincidence
Her goal is to place character’s in crises situations and reveal how they deal with trauma instead of taking a conventional mystery approach e.g Joanna’s disappearance has nothing to do with Andrew Decker
Trauma survival and reckoning with the past
Joanna trying to recreate her family memories with her present family
Constantly outrunning her past- vulnerability
Appearance vs reality
Lies and deception
Family
Dogs
Elements of crime
Resolution for two main victims
Survival and reckoning with the past
How it effects their present relationships
Outrunning their pasts
Victims- not mystery surrounding who the criminals are
Suspense surrounding Joanna’s whereabouts
Focus on the effects of crime
How love can redeem darkness and loss
Suspense and sense of danger
Punishment
Needler and Decker commit suicide
Joanna kills her kidnappers
Billy ends up alone
Moral framework is hazy
Joanna, Reggie and Jackson all commit crimes
good triumphs over evil
Reckoning with the past
Characters
Louise
Atkinson subverts typical descriptions of male detectives and applies them to Louise- cold, drinks excessively, not a family person
Obsession with victims e.g Alison and Joanna
Reggie
Innocent orphan- somewhat central impetus behind the investigation detective
Not maudlin or self-pitying
Her determination is rewarded
Finds clues, asks question, detective skills
works as a typical pair alongside Jackson ‘Holmes and Watson- esque’
Love motivated by own loneliness
Jackson
Titular character but spends most of it in hospital
Victims of identity theft and embezzelement
Tangent to the police, maverick-like character, decisive and quick thinking, instinctive, trauma
Joanna
Murderered family, absent dad, corrupt husband, kidnapped
Not characterized as helpless
Persuades decker to commit suicide
survival instinct makes her dangerous
Neil
Gets mixed into business with Micheal Anderson who’s thugs kidnap Joanna, instead of immediately signing over his business to save his wife he delays it