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kiwikathleen 's review for:
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
What a fascinating novel! Ursula Todd was born in February 1910, but the doctor was held up at another emergency, the midwife couldn't get there through the snow, the husband was somewhere (I don't remember now), and the maid was 14 and had no idea what to do. So Ursula died, suffocated by the umbilical cord.
We return to the same snowy scene, but this time it's different. A small change in circumstances and Ursula is born alive. But how long does she live? And what will she learn from that life for the next time she's born again as Ursula Todd?
We journey with Ursula and her family through the two World Wars, and they are directly involved. We also see much of family life in the country - this is a family that can afford two or three servants, and decent education for all the children - along with plenty of family dynamics. And as in any family with a large group of friends living nearby, there are many possible events both good and bad that can occur.
I love the way the author has treated this idea. Ursula spends quite some time being confused about whether things have happened or not; she has deja vu all the time; she gets flashes of imminent tragedy, which sometimes she is able to circumvent. But we don't just go over and over the same, with only the changes that arise along the way. There is, indeed, a definite goal towards which the narrative wends its way, and, again, it's fascinating.
We return to the same snowy scene, but this time it's different. A small change in circumstances and Ursula is born alive. But how long does she live? And what will she learn from that life for the next time she's born again as Ursula Todd?
We journey with Ursula and her family through the two World Wars, and they are directly involved. We also see much of family life in the country - this is a family that can afford two or three servants, and decent education for all the children - along with plenty of family dynamics. And as in any family with a large group of friends living nearby, there are many possible events both good and bad that can occur.
I love the way the author has treated this idea. Ursula spends quite some time being confused about whether things have happened or not; she has deja vu all the time; she gets flashes of imminent tragedy, which sometimes she is able to circumvent. But we don't just go over and over the same, with only the changes that arise along the way. There is, indeed, a definite goal towards which the narrative wends its way, and, again, it's fascinating.