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jc_fraser's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
novabird's review
1.0
After I had read “Life after Life,” I discovered by chance that someone had previously sprayed a women’s perfume (something by Arden possibly ‘Red Door,’) on my library-borrowed copy. Its scent was barely apparent, and only became known to me, by the slightest hint, when I actually followed the faintest scent trail and flipped the pages directly under my nose. I find myself contemplating why this was done. To immerse the book in a baptismal fount of adoration? To encase the reader in a lingering waft of remembrance? To inoculate/offset the reader against the olfactorial horrors of war found in this book by spritzing themselves with a hopeful salutary scent? To create a sensory bond of femininity, of sorority? Or, to simply give the book itself a dose of celebratory ‘extra’ life, with its semi-permanent fragrance doomed to eventually fade out entirely? Perhaps it was entirely accidental, though I doubt so because of the deckled pages where within its natural recesses it seems more embedded.
Enough about the perfumed musings for now . ..
This book is somewhat a literary, philosophical expanded idea of the Eternal Return, but much more so an examination of ‘trial and error,’ combined by circumventing chance, found concentrated in the bottle of multiple, repeating births, that of Ursula Todd born Feb. 11, 1910.
“Life After Life,” is also predicated on the idea of the involuntary sacrifice of one individual that moves towards the voluntary sacrifice of the same individual as they move forward in the progression of different outcomes. After all the foreshortened outcomes framed by sacrifice, I expected a grand resolution. Instead, I wind up with an already foretold conclusion that precipitates a time and space limited happy outcome.
My strongest feeling during my reading was of ‘hope deferred,’ and I kept on reading despite the repetition and the bleakness and the horrific war time scenes in which
Although its top note was long gone by at least a month, the base note of the perfume still had a sensory impact on me and I wonder now to what extent this may have had a subliminal effect on me and I wonder whether or not I was more critical than I admittedly usually am or less so. This book too will fade from my memory for the most part and leave me with a haunting and vague impression of a failed experiment and the remembrance of the perfume of Red Door.
Books and perfume do not have a natural affinity with one another for me.
Maybe there are some women who instead of spritzing themselves with a wreath of perfume before going out, spritz themselves in honor of staying in with a book. Perfume is a signifier of status, and I think that this book too is a signifier of a certain ‘readable’ status, where one has to ignore the fact that they cannot read German and the fact that they are not provided for most part with a translation.
Atkinson did realize a new structural format but failed to deliver a sufficient interweaving of what could have been a complex plot. The format lent itself to sporadic fits and bursts of character understanding only to rip it out and start again.
An unsatisfying read, despite the embellishment of ‘putting on the airs,’ of good prose and perfume.
Enough about the perfumed musings for now . ..
This book is somewhat a literary, philosophical expanded idea of the Eternal Return, but much more so an examination of ‘trial and error,’ combined by circumventing chance, found concentrated in the bottle of multiple, repeating births, that of Ursula Todd born Feb. 11, 1910.
“Life After Life,” is also predicated on the idea of the involuntary sacrifice of one individual that moves towards the voluntary sacrifice of the same individual as they move forward in the progression of different outcomes. After all the foreshortened outcomes framed by sacrifice, I expected a grand resolution. Instead, I wind up with an already foretold conclusion that precipitates a time and space limited happy outcome.
Spoiler
It is as if, Atkinson is saying we can only greatly alter the future of humankind by first increasing our own degree of happiness. In Ursula’s version of alternate reality, Germany still goes to war, despite the fact that she had effectively displaced Hitler. The Russians not the Jewish People are seen as the enemy. Yet, at the end, the story continues on an infinite loop and once one has achieved their happiness, and then again dies and is reborn, what more can there be? A devolution? More downward movements of chance and back up again? A wish for the deep sleep of mortality? There is nothing transcendent about Ursula’s manipulation of historical events. It is through her selfishness of wanting her brother Teddy to live and subsequently her mother, that motivates her desire to kill Hitler, and not the foresight of human atrocity of the Holcaust. Atkinson carefully avoids any metaphysical comments on the nature of death other than to describe that it is always accompanied by blackness. Atkinson cheapens the philosophy in favor of cutting the Mobius strip of literary infinitude off at the knees, by saying, “Practice makes perfect.”My strongest feeling during my reading was of ‘hope deferred,’ and I kept on reading despite the repetition and the bleakness and the horrific war time scenes in which
Spoiler
the remains of a dead baby will forever stay in my mind long after I forget Ursula’s name. To me that was a gratuitous depiction of graphic imagery.Although its top note was long gone by at least a month, the base note of the perfume still had a sensory impact on me and I wonder now to what extent this may have had a subliminal effect on me and I wonder whether or not I was more critical than I admittedly usually am or less so. This book too will fade from my memory for the most part and leave me with a haunting and vague impression of a failed experiment and the remembrance of the perfume of Red Door.
Books and perfume do not have a natural affinity with one another for me.
Maybe there are some women who instead of spritzing themselves with a wreath of perfume before going out, spritz themselves in honor of staying in with a book. Perfume is a signifier of status, and I think that this book too is a signifier of a certain ‘readable’ status, where one has to ignore the fact that they cannot read German and the fact that they are not provided for most part with a translation.
Atkinson did realize a new structural format but failed to deliver a sufficient interweaving of what could have been a complex plot. The format lent itself to sporadic fits and bursts of character understanding only to rip it out and start again.
An unsatisfying read, despite the embellishment of ‘putting on the airs,’ of good prose and perfume.
tildy08's review
5.0
It had an interesting premise, and I really enjoyed it, but the ending confused me a bit. Definitely recommend!
tracey1981's review against another edition
2.25
This really wasn’t my jam, but a lot of people love it. 🤷♀️ I don’t even really want to write a complaint/review about it because a) maybe it’s just my mood and b) I already spent more life energy on it than I wanted to.
sawyer_obrien's review
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
jen_jacob's review
1.0
I didn't actually finish this book - I gave up on it. Great premise but the plot is too hard to follow as the main character dies and comes back to life again over and over. Obviously we can't start the story over each time from her birth so the story picks up seemingly arbitrarily. Too cumbersome for me.....
celestialwillow's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
5.0
bbryan88's review
3.0
Honestly the book pissed me off. I don't know if that was a good thing or not.
dilchh's review
5.0
Oh boy, was I glad I decided to keep reading this book until the finished rather than be tempted to read another book (like I usually do). First off, I decided to read this book during my obsession moment after I finished All the Light That We Cannot See but I didn’t actually read the book later on. I had high expectation of this book, and then I got thrown out a plane when I read this book. It was disappointing to say the least; and boring to say the most.
I get the gist that Ursula can always repeat her life every time she dies, but it was not until she was raped by Howie and lead a rather sad and gloomy life, and dies in the hands of her abusive husband, Derek. That was after 4 days into reading this book that I finally get the gist on how the chapters of this book actually works, and that also when I got hooked up immediately with this book. I literally refuse to put this book down; if not for the notion that I might finish this book sooner than I had expected, I literally would not stop reading this book.
Alas, even though I really like this book, I still can’t get used to the way the author is telling the story. At some point, she would cut a sentence into many sentences, but other time, there would be a sentence without an ending whatsoever. It was so exhausting. What annoys me the most was the fact that within a story, she would leapt to another story and then back to square one, all in the span of a chapter. Good Lord, it took me another day to actually got used to that and not get lost into confusion with this story.
All in all, this was a very fun read and if anyone out there is interested in historical fiction or just finished reading All the Light We Cannot See, feel free to pick this book; though I still think All the Light We Cannot See was still better. Moving on, I used to think that this book was about Ursula was given more chances in living her life to fix what was wrong in her life (for instance, when she was raped, or when she drowned, or when her daughter died), but by the time the book ended, I can’t help but think that when Ursula finally realize her power, she went back to change the course of history only to saved his brother Teddy, which I thought was very sweet.
There something about the way the author portray Teddy that I can’t help myself but fall for Teddy and wished nothing but his safety, even though he rarely pops up in the book, compared to Pamela for instance. What I expect more from this story was the closure for that weird limping man who presumably killed little Angela and Nancy (in an alternate universe). I want an answer and closure about this man!
I get the gist that Ursula can always repeat her life every time she dies, but it was not until she was raped by Howie and lead a rather sad and gloomy life, and dies in the hands of her abusive husband, Derek. That was after 4 days into reading this book that I finally get the gist on how the chapters of this book actually works, and that also when I got hooked up immediately with this book. I literally refuse to put this book down; if not for the notion that I might finish this book sooner than I had expected, I literally would not stop reading this book.
Alas, even though I really like this book, I still can’t get used to the way the author is telling the story. At some point, she would cut a sentence into many sentences, but other time, there would be a sentence without an ending whatsoever. It was so exhausting. What annoys me the most was the fact that within a story, she would leapt to another story and then back to square one, all in the span of a chapter. Good Lord, it took me another day to actually got used to that and not get lost into confusion with this story.
All in all, this was a very fun read and if anyone out there is interested in historical fiction or just finished reading All the Light We Cannot See, feel free to pick this book; though I still think All the Light We Cannot See was still better. Moving on, I used to think that this book was about Ursula was given more chances in living her life to fix what was wrong in her life (for instance, when she was raped, or when she drowned, or when her daughter died), but by the time the book ended, I can’t help but think that when Ursula finally realize her power, she went back to change the course of history only to saved his brother Teddy, which I thought was very sweet.
There something about the way the author portray Teddy that I can’t help myself but fall for Teddy and wished nothing but his safety, even though he rarely pops up in the book, compared to Pamela for instance. What I expect more from this story was the closure for that weird limping man who presumably killed little Angela and Nancy (in an alternate universe). I want an answer and closure about this man!