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Life After Life A Novel Kate Atkinson Books

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Life After Life A Novel Kate Atkinson Books

Most reviewers of "Life after Life" have taken the main character's multiple deaths and resurrections as evidence that the novel is about second chances, the option of having a new life after the previous one has been snuffed out. I read it differently. On one occasion Sylvie Todd, the sharp-witted mother of the protagonist Ursula Todd, calls her daughter "Cassandra," referring to the mythical figure who had the gift of delivering dire prophecies that nobody listened to. Accordingly, I viewed the multiple calamities that befall Ursula - umbilical strangling, drowning, political assassination, rape, marital homicide - not as "what ifs?" imposed by a post-modern tease of a storyteller, but as projections of a mind uncannily attuned to the precariousness of living. How Ursula manages to create her own, authentic life in the face of such mind-bending catastrophes is the real story of Atkinson's oddly constructed ode to a very human heroism, and it is the beacon that leads the reader through the maze of dead ends. Set largely against the two greatest (real) disasters of the 20th century - the two world wars - Ursula's journey is an often scintillating one, deftly told. But, at some 500 pages, it's an awfully meandering trek, requiring you to maintain a balance between empathy for Ursula's trials and awareness of being manhandled by a relentlessly clever author. The experience is both exhilarating and wearying. Whether it's worth it in the end is a question that Atkinson leaves entirely up to you.


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Life After Life A Novel Kate Atkinson Books Reviews

It's time travel. No, it's not that. It's science fiction. No, not that either. It's literary genius. Yes, it is definitely that. This is the (somewhat convoluted) story of Ursula Todd, who is born (and born again and again and again) on February 11, 1910. Ursula has the decidedly uncommon ability to be born again after death.

She comes back as the same baby in the same family and with the same life, but a strong sense of deja vu allows her to correct mistakes and avert tragedies that plagued her earlier lives--until she is finally able to do the ultimate deed for humanity. But does she really succeed and change history?

This is an intriguing, very readable book that seems so real and actually feasible--even though you know it's absolutely not. (Or is it?) Best of all, it's funny! And that is quite a feat considering the bulk of the story takes place during the brutality of World War II, especially the Blitz in London.

This book is a testament to author Kate Atkinson's imagination, storytelling creativity and literary genius. Read it!
This novel is not for everyone. It does not follow a linear story line. It jumps from one period to another in the life of an English woman, Ursula Todd, from her birth in 1911, through WWII and into the post-war period. Moreover, it jumps not only from one period to another but from one version of Ursula's life to another. In one version, she remains single and stays in England and spends the harrowing war years in London. But in another, she goes to Germany, marries, has a child and, victims of the post-war suffering and starvation in Germany, kills herself and her young daughter. The book, in fact, opens with Ursula in Germany. As a friend of Eva Braun, she is trusted by Hitler, and tries to kill him. There are many examples of double, sometimes triple, versions of events in Ursula's and in her family's life.
Everyone will have their own interpretation of the meaning of this book. It certainly precipitates thought and discussion. It's about possibilities, and the role of choices, and the role of chance in life. It's also about the power of the novelist to lure the reader -- and perhaps herself -- into that "willing suspension of disbelief" that critics talk about. The interweaving of many stories makes us understand the power that stories have over us.
This all sounds very trendy, but the book is fascinating -- if the reader can tolerate some perplexity.
This fascinating novel is based on the premise that death isn't necessarily forever. The central character, Ursula Todd, is born on a snowy night in England in 1910. In the first account of this, she dies almost immediately, strangled by the umbilical cord with no doctor or midwife to help her mother through the birth. In the next account, the doctor has arrived, the umbilical cord is cut, and the baby lives. And so on and so forth -- Ursula's life follows a different pattern each time, which leads to her death but then to a new pattern.

The book is full of philosophical questions, but they do not intrude; it works brilliantly as a novel. The narrative carries the reader right along with the strongest of hooks what will happen next (time)? The descriptions of time and place are haunting, particularly those of World War II London. The characters are rounded, and some engaged at least this reader emotionally. And they are diverse -- Ursula, of course, is not the only one whose life follows a different pattern in her various iterations, and it becomes almost a game to figure out what has changed for which character. The ending is mysterious, but that is appropriate a novel that explores so many possibilities.
Most reviewers of "Life after Life" have taken the main character's multiple deaths and resurrections as evidence that the novel is about second chances, the option of having a new life after the previous one has been snuffed out. I read it differently. On one occasion Sylvie Todd, the sharp-witted mother of the protagonist Ursula Todd, calls her daughter "Cassandra," referring to the mythical figure who had the gift of delivering dire prophecies that nobody listened to. Accordingly, I viewed the multiple calamities that befall Ursula - umbilical strangling, drowning, political assassination, rape, marital homicide - not as "what ifs?" imposed by a post-modern tease of a storyteller, but as projections of a mind uncannily attuned to the precariousness of living. How Ursula manages to create her own, authentic life in the face of such mind-bending catastrophes is the real story of Atkinson's oddly constructed ode to a very human heroism, and it is the beacon that leads the reader through the maze of dead ends. Set largely against the two greatest (real) disasters of the 20th century - the two world wars - Ursula's journey is an often scintillating one, deftly told. But, at some 500 pages, it's an awfully meandering trek, requiring you to maintain a balance between empathy for Ursula's trials and awareness of being manhandled by a relentlessly clever author. The experience is both exhilarating and wearying. Whether it's worth it in the end is a question that Atkinson leaves entirely up to you.