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jenweening 's review for:
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would. The idea of time travel was not appealing to me, but this book did it in such a realistic way. Ursula is born on a snowy winter night, and promptly dies. In the next chapter, Ursula is born on that same snowy winter night, and lives. And so goes her life in rural England. We read about Ursula's experience, and her death, and then we experience an alternate reality -- how things may have been vastly different with one small change in circumstance or action. So, rather than a story about time travel, I would call it a story about alternate realities or possibilities.
Of course, the fact that this book spans both the first and second World Wars makes it an instant winner for me; I always love war stories. Two of the starkest differences in terms of Ursula's experience, I found, were her experiences living in Germany before and during WWII, and living in London during the Blitz. The biggest event that seemed to affect Ursula's ultimate fortunes or happiness was the attack by her brother's friend and the ensuing pregnancy. In the alternate version, fighting him off as he tried to kiss her in the bushes made all the difference in the world.
Of course, this is fiction, and perhaps the differences in how things end up is made to be greater than it actually would be. But you never know. The book reminded me of the movies The Butterfly Effect and Sliding Doors - how one small act can change the course of history. And the very first scene of the novel, with Ursula in Germany in the 30s, underlines that idea so strongly. The novel doesn't dwell on the social impact of this imaginary scene, but it is hard not to wonder: How could things have been different had someone killed Hitler before he could do what he did?
Favourite quotes:
"Pamela would not fare well under this regime. Her sense of moral outrage would be too great for her to remain silent. She wouldn't be able to bite her tongue like Ursula did (a scold's bridle). They also serve who only stand and wait. Did that apply to one's ethics? Is this my defense, Ursula wondered? It might be better to misquote Edmund Burke rather than Milton. All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good women to do nothing." (333)
"If she could go back in time and take a lover from history it would be Donne. Not Keats, the knowledge of his untimely death would colour everything quite wretchedly. That was the problem of time travel, of course (apart from the impossibility) -- one would always be a Cassandra, spreading doom with one's foreknowledge of events. It was quite wearyingly relentless but the only way that one could go was forward." (399)
"'All those names,' Teddy said, gazing at the Cenotaph. 'All those lives. And now again. I think there is something wrong with the human race. It undermines everything one would like to believe in, don't you think?'
'No point in thinking,' she said briskly, 'you just have to get on with life.' (She really was turning into Miss Woolf.) 'We only have one after all, we should try and do our best. We can never get it right, but we must try.' (The transformation was complete.)" (404)
"Young people these days had so much enthusiasm for themselves, as if they had invented the future. This was the generation the war had been fought for and now they bandied the word 'peace' around glibly as though it were an advertising slogan. They had not experienced a war ('And that's a good thing,' she heard Sylvie say, 'no matter how unsatisfactory they turn out'). They had been handed, in Churchill's phrase, the title deeds of freedom. What they did with them was their affair now, she supposed. (What an old fuddy-duddy she sounded, she had become the person she always thought she would never be.)" (429)
Of course, the fact that this book spans both the first and second World Wars makes it an instant winner for me; I always love war stories. Two of the starkest differences in terms of Ursula's experience, I found, were her experiences living in Germany before and during WWII, and living in London during the Blitz. The biggest event that seemed to affect Ursula's ultimate fortunes or happiness was the attack by her brother's friend and the ensuing pregnancy. In the alternate version, fighting him off as he tried to kiss her in the bushes made all the difference in the world.
Of course, this is fiction, and perhaps the differences in how things end up is made to be greater than it actually would be. But you never know. The book reminded me of the movies The Butterfly Effect and Sliding Doors - how one small act can change the course of history. And the very first scene of the novel, with Ursula in Germany in the 30s, underlines that idea so strongly. The novel doesn't dwell on the social impact of this imaginary scene, but it is hard not to wonder: How could things have been different had someone killed Hitler before he could do what he did?
Favourite quotes:
"Pamela would not fare well under this regime. Her sense of moral outrage would be too great for her to remain silent. She wouldn't be able to bite her tongue like Ursula did (a scold's bridle). They also serve who only stand and wait. Did that apply to one's ethics? Is this my defense, Ursula wondered? It might be better to misquote Edmund Burke rather than Milton. All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good women to do nothing." (333)
"If she could go back in time and take a lover from history it would be Donne. Not Keats, the knowledge of his untimely death would colour everything quite wretchedly. That was the problem of time travel, of course (apart from the impossibility) -- one would always be a Cassandra, spreading doom with one's foreknowledge of events. It was quite wearyingly relentless but the only way that one could go was forward." (399)
"'All those names,' Teddy said, gazing at the Cenotaph. 'All those lives. And now again. I think there is something wrong with the human race. It undermines everything one would like to believe in, don't you think?'
'No point in thinking,' she said briskly, 'you just have to get on with life.' (She really was turning into Miss Woolf.) 'We only have one after all, we should try and do our best. We can never get it right, but we must try.' (The transformation was complete.)" (404)
"Young people these days had so much enthusiasm for themselves, as if they had invented the future. This was the generation the war had been fought for and now they bandied the word 'peace' around glibly as though it were an advertising slogan. They had not experienced a war ('And that's a good thing,' she heard Sylvie say, 'no matter how unsatisfactory they turn out'). They had been handed, in Churchill's phrase, the title deeds of freedom. What they did with them was their affair now, she supposed. (What an old fuddy-duddy she sounded, she had become the person she always thought she would never be.)" (429)