Life After Life

Seems to have mixed reviews but I loved this book

If you are interested in this book don't read the major reviews because they all give away important points about Life after Life.

Kate Atkinson breaks the rules of writing in this novel about a woman, Ursula Todd, who lives her life over and over again, each time improving on the one before. Each time we make our way through Ursula's story we see her supporting characters from a different perspective, with different motives and different lives.

It takes about 100 pages to get the hang of Atkinson's structure but then you easily settle into the pattern and enjoy the ride.

Imagine a writer of beautiful prose who is frustrated with having to select one good storyline for her novel and then not having too. Kate Atkinson's gets to apply her beautiful prose to many possible outcomes. Along the way you will be wrapped in the rich history of England between 1910 and 1967. Enjoy!

I was really excited to devote some time over break to reading an adult book that was one every top 10 list of the year, but alas, it was not as I had hoped. The first 100 pages of the book were zippy, witty, and interesting, but the middle 300-400 truly plodded on. The last 20 pages zipped along again, but by that point I was too annoyed that I had invested that much time for 1/4 of a good book.

The main character of Life After Life, Ursula Todd, was born in England on February 11, 1910, and when she dies she is reborn to live her life again. The book follows Ursula, and her family, friends, and relationships as she lives her many lives, making small changes in each that have larger consequences. I enjoyed Kate Atkinson's writing style a lot – rich in detail, immersing you in the settings and period. Spanning both World Wars, this is not a light-hearted read, although Atkinson supplies occasional moments of dark humor. I found the book a little slow to get moving but compelling once I got into it. I was worried after the first chapter that the book's ambitions were limited but happy to find the opposite. It's an exploration of fate, choice and consequence, and one that I have found more interesting the more I reflect on it.

An interesting concept. The more I think I this about one, and the more distance I get from it, the more I like it. Loved the family dynamics, love Atkinson's writing style, and appreciate the way the story and its consolation weren't so blatant–there are a lot of possible interpretations for what exactly was going on in this book and what the overall purpose was.

Heel graag gelezen. Super concept, maar was toch een beetje verbaasd door het einde. Ik dacht dat ik nog een hoofdstuk miste of zo...

Throughout the span of WWI to the 1960s, Ursula is unaware of dying multiple deaths and being reborn time and again. She does, however, have a “sixth sense” – a sense of déjà vu appears whenever the most stressful or horrific episodes in her life are to occur. Because of this “sixth sense,” Ursula is able to change her own history and make her future futures (?) a little bit more content and livable. The writing is just beautiful and the author's attention to detail makes for very realistic and vivid characters.

Ursula craved solitude but she hated loneliness, a conundrum that she couldn't even begin to solve.

It's not you, Life After Life, it's me.

Enjoyed this interesting structure of showing “what if” one thing had happened differently, yet all these various paths somehow were in your memory.

I haven't read Kate Atkinson before, I saw this in a bookshop and immediately the story concept grabbed me.

What if you could live life again and again, each time taking a different path. This is what happens to Ursula, from the moment of her birth where in one reality she dies immediately after her birth but in another she lives.

The book progresses with this concept, during one childhood day at the beach she wanders too far into the sea and cannot be saved. In another a local artist spots her and saves her and life continues.

I didn't find the book confusing. I found the childhood chapters slower than those during the early war years where Ursula has so many possible futures and each so different it made fascinating reading. I don't want to give too much away but the scenario with Ursula in Germany pre Second World War was brilliantly written.

The only problem I had with the book is when your entire concept is that whenever the lead character dies time resets itself and she gets another go how on earth does it ever end...the premise that Ursula could change the future for everyone is a great concept but it doesn't fulfil when time immediately resets again and her act is wiped out. And so you get the feeling the author could be writing forever and not ever would we get a final conclusion and that is the books only flaw. It didn't feel finished and that was a little frustrating.

Interesting concept; turned out to be different from what I'm expected, but it worked well. I did get a bit tired of reading ‘darkness fell' or the ‘snow' chapters :)

Ursula Todd is born in the midst of a blizzard in 1910, not once, but many times, during the course of her life - living only to die and be born again, repeatedly, traveling many paths until she lives the life she was meant to live.

Kate Atkinson's writing is superb, and lyrical enough that it carried me through to the end of this book. The plot, however, left me floundering for weeks, trying desperately to claw my way to the end of this depressing tale. While the premise - reincarnation and destiny - is interesting, the execution left me frustrated.

The early chapters of the book are very short, as Ursula is born, dies, and is reborn again with rapid succession. With each successive life, she lives longer (in most cases) and is developed more and more as a character. The choppy format of the early chapters make it difficult to get attached to Ursula, but as she lives longer, it becomes more and more apparent that she lives a sad, depressing life. In addition, as a result of her continued rebirth, it's difficult to become attached to her, or to feel any real regret or sadness at her passing. Also strange is that, as often as you meet them throughout Ursula's life, her siblings never really become fully realized characters. As they move in and out of her life, these siblings play important roles in the paths she follows, yet they remain rather one-dimensional, as though Atkinson couldn't be bothered to spend the time on them.

The book was also a bit too meandering in its plot. Lives that led no where interesting or important wandered on for far too long, while lives that seemed to be leading somewhere ended abruptly, only to pick up again to follow another pointless path. Perhaps this was Atkinson's exploration of the capricious nature of fate, but it made for some rough reading. About 100 pages of this novel could have been trimmed and it would only have improved the quality. Forty of those hundred pages should have been the last forty of the book - the last few “lives” lived by Ursula were confusing and unnecessary to the novel.

All in all, the writing was exactly what you'd expect from Atkinson (wonderful), but the story itself was confusing, lifeless, and somewhat empty. A hundred fewer pages, a different ending, and more fully fleshed-out secondary characters would have resulted in a 4 star book for me.

(I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a review.)