Kate Atkinson’s novel is tricky. In this novel, with
death not an ending but a beginning, it’s hard to know what is reality. The
story opens in November 1930. The main protagonist, Ursula, kills Adolph Hitler
for an unknown reason. Then the novel reverts to a cold, snowy, January night
in 1910. Sylvie Todd is giving birth; the doctor does not arrive before the
baby makes its appearance. However, the baby girl dies, strangled by the umbilical
cord. In the next chapter, taking place on the same night and almost under the
same circumstances, the results are very different. The doctor is able to make
it through the snow and the baby, named Ursula, does not die.
Reincarnations, like Ursula’s birth, that are the
crux of Atkinson’s novel and these types of episodes appear over and over
although not in a linear structure. The novel moves over the course of the
early 20th century. Most of the story takes places between 1910 and
1947, with one chapter stretching to 1967.
At times the plot was difficult to understand. Just
about the time I got into a linear stretch, the time moved again. I felt as if
I was reading basically a linear plot that continually moved forward, yet had
room for the “what if’s?” of life.
There was one chapter where Ursula is best friends
with Eva Braun, is married and has a child. That seemed to come from nowhere
and was, for me, quite confusing.
By the time I was turned the last page, I had gotten
to know these characters very, very well, perhaps more so than if Life After Life was a traditional love.
It was starting to get a little old about two-thirds through the 560 pages,
which I why I’m giving Life After Life
4
out of 5 stars. However, I do think this is a book that can be read over and
over and over. As a person moves through his or her life, like Ursula, a new
reading, I think, will create even newer worlds.
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