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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
I had read this years ago, and probably liked it more the first time. Found the middle to be the strongest, and the WW2 bombing descriptions hard to stomach with Gaza in mind
There's a Margaret Atwood short story called "Happy Endings," which is actually a series of very brief stories in which two characters meet and eventually die, with different variations of events in between (no conflict, internal conflict, external conflict, and so on). It makes the point that the What of the plot of a story is not the most important aspect of it.
Life After Life seems to me to be a very long, very drawn-out version of "Happy Endings." We catch on quickly that the main character, Ursula Todd, is going to die -- dies, in fact, in the very first brief chapter -- and then we will get to see what happens if she didn't die and her life continued. At some point the story gets stuck -- it seems there is no way to avoid Ursula coming down with the Spanish flu -- and Ursula begins to take a hand in her own destiny through premonitions that guide her toward a survival path. She doesn't remember her former lives (except, possibly, toward the very end of the book), just has a sense of déjà vu about certain things that allows her to avoid danger the second or third time around.
In a way, it's a take on the idea that there are infinite universes, that every decision we make creates a branch in which a parallel universe is created, and we are reading each of these parallel universe plots. It's also like a Choose Your Own Adventure book in that every path eventually ends in death and you start over again, making different choices.
This plot device around which the book is built is at the core of both what I liked and what I hated about this book. Liked, because it provides an opportunity to see a number of different life paths that a woman born in 1910 to a wealthy family could have taken -- their variety and their limits -- without having a passel of characters to keep track of. (This was the downfall of The Glass Palace: In trying to show every viewpoint and every life path possible, the author created far too many characters.) Hated, because there was very little driving the book forward. Every section began a new game of, "OK, when/how is she gonna die this time," and it became hard for me to care about what her umpteenth life path would be. Presumably what was meant to drive the book forward was the opening chapter in which it appears that Ursula is (maybe) going to eventually kill Hitler, but this isn't revisited again until the very end of the book, which means there's a LOT of life paths to slog through in the meantime.
There are also a lot of unanswered questions left by the book. As I said after reading The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow, I don't mind fantasy or magical realism or whatever you want to call supernatural elements in a book, I just want to be given some sort of internally coherent explanation of how they work. But this book offers no explanation or resolution. Even if Ursula kills Hitler, she's only saved the world from him in that particular timeline, and then she dies and her life starts all over again. Does she have to try to kill him in as many parallel universes as possible? Some discussion among characters implies that she may get to stop the merry-go-round once she "gets everything right," but we as the reader never get to know that for sure (unlike in Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray gets to stop reliving the same day once he learns certain life lessons).At the very end we see a version of her life in which she's managed to save both Teddy and Nancy, but the last chapter is another "Snow" chapter, implying that she's been reborn yet again.
I will give Atkinson props that, from a prose perspective, the book is easy to read, even when there's a lack of plot-driven motivation to do so. She also manages to jump back and forth in time constantly without getting the reader too lost (at least, I wasn't), which is an impressive trick to pull off. In the end, it wasn't a terrible book -- it provided some food for thought about life, decisions, and so on -- but I personally have a hard time understanding how Entertainment Weekly crowned it the best novel of 2013 and Goodreads readers the best Historical Fiction of the year. Maybe if it had been half as long it wouldn't have seemed such a chore to read.
Life After Life seems to me to be a very long, very drawn-out version of "Happy Endings." We catch on quickly that the main character, Ursula Todd, is going to die -- dies, in fact, in the very first brief chapter -- and then we will get to see what happens if she didn't die and her life continued. At some point the story gets stuck -- it seems there is no way to avoid Ursula coming down with the Spanish flu -- and Ursula begins to take a hand in her own destiny through premonitions that guide her toward a survival path. She doesn't remember her former lives (except, possibly, toward the very end of the book), just has a sense of déjà vu about certain things that allows her to avoid danger the second or third time around.
In a way, it's a take on the idea that there are infinite universes, that every decision we make creates a branch in which a parallel universe is created, and we are reading each of these parallel universe plots. It's also like a Choose Your Own Adventure book in that every path eventually ends in death and you start over again, making different choices.
This plot device around which the book is built is at the core of both what I liked and what I hated about this book. Liked, because it provides an opportunity to see a number of different life paths that a woman born in 1910 to a wealthy family could have taken -- their variety and their limits -- without having a passel of characters to keep track of. (This was the downfall of The Glass Palace: In trying to show every viewpoint and every life path possible, the author created far too many characters.) Hated, because there was very little driving the book forward. Every section began a new game of, "OK, when/how is she gonna die this time," and it became hard for me to care about what her umpteenth life path would be. Presumably what was meant to drive the book forward was the opening chapter in which it appears that Ursula is (maybe) going to eventually kill Hitler, but this isn't revisited again until the very end of the book, which means there's a LOT of life paths to slog through in the meantime.
There are also a lot of unanswered questions left by the book. As I said after reading The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow, I don't mind fantasy or magical realism or whatever you want to call supernatural elements in a book, I just want to be given some sort of internally coherent explanation of how they work. But this book offers no explanation or resolution. Even if Ursula kills Hitler, she's only saved the world from him in that particular timeline, and then she dies and her life starts all over again. Does she have to try to kill him in as many parallel universes as possible? Some discussion among characters implies that she may get to stop the merry-go-round once she "gets everything right," but we as the reader never get to know that for sure (unlike in Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray gets to stop reliving the same day once he learns certain life lessons).
I will give Atkinson props that, from a prose perspective, the book is easy to read, even when there's a lack of plot-driven motivation to do so. She also manages to jump back and forth in time constantly without getting the reader too lost (at least, I wasn't), which is an impressive trick to pull off. In the end, it wasn't a terrible book -- it provided some food for thought about life, decisions, and so on -- but I personally have a hard time understanding how Entertainment Weekly crowned it the best novel of 2013 and Goodreads readers the best Historical Fiction of the year. Maybe if it had been half as long it wouldn't have seemed such a chore to read.
I had a hard time getting into this book in the beginning because I just couldn't see where the author was heading with the story. Once I kept reading though I was hooked. I just had to know how far Ursula would make it each time and under what circumstances she would have to start over. Some of the endings made me quite sad for her (like when her bastard of a husband killed her, or when she had the abortion), but it was nice to see how she was able to make a slight change the next time around that would prevent the unfortunate ending from happening. I still didn't really get the ending though which is why I gave my review only 4 stars. All around a great read and I would recommend it.
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
So smart and original. Strong 4 star rating -- almost a 5.
Some books leave an impact. They stick with you long after you've read them. I have a feeling this will be one of those books for me. My Mom had given me a copy of Kate Atkinson's Life After Life several years ago, and only just this February did I finally feel inspired to take it off the shelf. Little did I know it was the perfect February read. This book is not meant to be read on the beach or in the summer. It's a book for the depths of northern winter, meant to be read in a time when the world looks really bleak but we all keep living anyway.
I feel like anything I say about this book will be too much of a spoiler, so I don't want to make this review too thorough. I've seen some reviewers comment with frustrations about the style and pace of the book, which is very stop-start-stop-start due to the main character being reborn and living her life over and over again throughout the course of the book. I can see how this could be frustrating, but I found myself feeling in awe of the author's ability to use this style of storytelling and yet still make each telling of the story unique and interesting. Each unfolding only brings the characters more to life and adds complexity to the story. It's brilliantly done!
I did find that at times I was wishing for more agency somehow on the part of Ursula. I wanted her to reach some kind of climactic realization of her abilities and take charge in a drastic way, but that climax didn't exactly happen, at least not in the way I was wishing for. But I don't think that frustration detracts from the greatness of this book. Oftentimes I've discovered that the sign of a good book is that it frustrates you and subverts your expectations. If I'm wanting to literally reach into the story and shake the characters and say "Hey, you need to do this differently!" it's a sign that I'm pretty into the book! And I felt that way numerous times while reading this.
I have a feeling that if I read it again I'd discover even more connections that I'd missed. There is meticulous craft in this work, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a winter book that keeps you enthralled until the end (and maybe afterwards too).
I feel like anything I say about this book will be too much of a spoiler, so I don't want to make this review too thorough. I've seen some reviewers comment with frustrations about the style and pace of the book, which is very stop-start-stop-start due to the main character being reborn and living her life over and over again throughout the course of the book. I can see how this could be frustrating, but I found myself feeling in awe of the author's ability to use this style of storytelling and yet still make each telling of the story unique and interesting. Each unfolding only brings the characters more to life and adds complexity to the story. It's brilliantly done!
I did find that at times I was wishing for more agency somehow on the part of Ursula. I wanted her to reach some kind of climactic realization of her abilities and take charge in a drastic way, but that climax didn't exactly happen, at least not in the way I was wishing for. But I don't think that frustration detracts from the greatness of this book. Oftentimes I've discovered that the sign of a good book is that it frustrates you and subverts your expectations. If I'm wanting to literally reach into the story and shake the characters and say "Hey, you need to do this differently!" it's a sign that I'm pretty into the book! And I felt that way numerous times while reading this.
I have a feeling that if I read it again I'd discover even more connections that I'd missed. There is meticulous craft in this work, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a winter book that keeps you enthralled until the end (and maybe afterwards too).
First off, I listened to the audiobook version of this, so let me comment on that. Fenella Woolgar (perhaps best known to Americans as Agatha Christie on Doctor Who) was wonderful. Her vocal changes for each character were just enough to differentiate each one and her reading was one of the best I've heard in a while. And she has the most crisp of English accents; I can never again think "needs must" without hearing her voice.
The book itself: It ended a bit differently than I expected and yet didn't. I think it doesn't end; it stops. It seems we're all infinitely reborn, perhaps the real reason for deja vu. As Ursula (the main character) notes late in the book, we're palimpsests, and in her case, the scraping of her previous lives isn't particularly thorough, so she is both cursed and blessed to know what's to come and, in many cases, how to avoid it. The negative events are most heavily written on Ursula's parchment--to the point of her taking active steps in her current life to ensure she avoids or prevents them in her next.
Overall, this book left me thinking and feeling quite a lot, but the true test is whether I'll remember it next time around.
The book itself: It ended a bit differently than I expected and yet didn't. I think it doesn't end; it stops. It seems we're all infinitely reborn, perhaps the real reason for deja vu. As Ursula (the main character) notes late in the book, we're palimpsests, and in her case, the scraping of her previous lives isn't particularly thorough, so she is both cursed and blessed to know what's to come and, in many cases, how to avoid it. The negative events are most heavily written on Ursula's parchment--to the point of her taking active steps in her current life to ensure she avoids or prevents them in her next.
Overall, this book left me thinking and feeling quite a lot, but the true test is whether I'll remember it next time around.
Te ondoorgrondelijk/saai/gewoon heel erg niet mijn ding.
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The story is so interwoven that it at times gets confusing but is worth taking the time to sort out. Overall, intriguing concept and well-written story.
Love first 5 Jackson Brodie books. Life After Life was disappointing, bland, and pointless.