Book Review: Life After Life
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books,
April 2, 2013
My rating: 4.5of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.
Does Ursula’s apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can — will she?
First of all, I have to say that this is the first Kate Atkinson book I’ve read and I love her writing style. The prose is poetic and the English wit her characters have, especially Ursula, is dry and wonderful. Secondly, I thought the concept of this book was unique – it was a little like a Choose Your Own Adventure book in literary fiction form, only Ursula was making the choices in each of her lives, not the reader. I could not put this book down and that was a good thing. There is a lot to remember from each life to make the next life make sense and I don’t have the best memory. It’s the kind of book that a reader can read again and again, making new discoveries of small, relevant details each time.
I only had two minor quarrels with the book. First, I thought the section with Eva was too long and secondly, the ending was ambiguous and if you’ve followed my reviews for long, you know that I have trouble with ambiguous endings. I wanted more, which I actually think speaks to how fantastic this book is. I wanted it to go on forever but I suppose it had to end sometime. Even at over 500 pages it was not enough for me!
Now that I have discovered Ms. Atkinson and her fabulous writing style and wit, I can’t wait to read more of her books. If you’re a fan of hers, what would you recommend I read next?
