Book Review: Life After Life
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson is the first book I’ve written about on this blog that I’ve had mixed feeling about. Life After Life tells the story of a girl named Ursula Todd, born in England in 1911, who has an odd ability to die and be reborn again and again into the exact same life. Over the course of the novel, she drowns, is killed by the Spanish Flu (multiple times), dies by suicide, falls off a roof, is murdered by a violent husband, gets bombed in World War II (also multiple times), and suffers from a wide variety of other untimely and, honestly, rather creative deaths.
Death isn’t the only focus though. Really, this is a book about life, and all the different ways one person can live it, even when born into the exact same circumstances.
That’s what I liked about the book: it really made me think about how small, inconsequential decisions or occurrences can have huge reverberations. Through each iteration of Ursula’s life, you see how small tweaks to her story — a maid breaking her ankle, a chance meeting with an attractive man on a summer trip to Germany, walking around a hedge instead of through it — totally alter her destiny. And these things don’t just affect the way that she dies, they impact her self-confidence, the people she chooses to spend time with, the jobs she takes on, and more.
Writing this now, I am reminded of a story my grandpa used to tell about one such moment in his life. Before he met my grandma, he received a job offer that would have required him to leave Chicago (where he lived at the time). He wasn’t married yet and it was a good opportunity, so he called the company to accept the offer. However, when he called, the hiring manager had just stepped away from his desk, so his secretary told him to call back the next day (this was before cellphones, obviously).
That night, given extra time to reflect, my grandpa changed his mind and decided to turn down the job offer and stay in Chicago. Soon after, he met my grandmother, and the rest is history! They got married and raised their family in Chicago. Two generations later, I’m still here, writing this blog post on a snowy winter day.
If my grandpa had Ursula Todd’s miraculous reincarnation ability, we might see how his life would have played out if the manager hadn’t been away from his desk. Would he have met another nice woman in, say, New York, and raised his family there? Would his parallel universe granddaughter be sitting in another state right now, writing a review of a movie she just watched? What would her life have been like?
It’s a fascinating concept, and Atkinson gives her readers the opportunity to really reflect on it. But that brings me to what I didn’t like about this book: Atkinson went a bit overboard with the number of ways she explored Ursula’s reincarnations. She covers so many versions of Ursula’s life throughout the 500+ pages of the novel that I found myself losing interest and skimming over some of the finer details. And that’s a shame because her writing is really incredible. The characters have depth, the dialogue is very believable, and the descriptions are vivid. But I felt like I could only read about the snowy November day when Ursula was born so many times.
If you’re willing to put the time in, it’s an interesting, well-written book. I’d recommend Life After Life if you are looking for a longer read, enjoy historical fiction, and like reflecting on life’s existential questions. But maybe hold off if you’re in the market for a beach read or something fun and light.
If you’re interested, you can buy Life After Life here.
Rating: 3 stars
Rating Scale:
5 Stars: I love this book!!!
4 Stars: Pretty good
3 Stars: Good
2 Stars: Not for me
1 Star: Truly dislike