Wednesday Reading

[ponygirl2000]

What did you just finish reading?

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. I'm a fan of Atkinson's Jackson Brodie's mystery novels (as well as her short stories) and this is an interesting continuation of that series' increasing fascination with chance and intersecting lives. Here though she takes it to a magical realist level with Ursula, born in

Comments

[mamculuna]

I really loved Life After Life. At first I thought it was going to be like Groundhog Day, with the lives sequential, eliminating one problem at a time--but when she lived the Nazi life, it got clear that wasn't happening! Then I thought maybe it was more like The Garden of Forking Paths--each time she made a crucial choice, a new life branched out. But it was clear to me at least that she was moving toward the killing-Hitler life, not just going through random changes. Finally, in discussion with a friend, we thought it was like a spiral, moving through learning and chance on several levels.

One thing we wondered was whether other characters were also vaguely aware of the repetitions.

[ponygirl2000]

What did you think of the ending though? It seemed like her life after the Hitler-killing was a kind of reward with Teddy returning, and then it seemed like she was going to start another life. Does it ever end for Ursula? It's sad to think that it doesn't.

I would agree that other characters had some awareness as well, Sylvie having the surgical scissors at the end seemed to indicate it. I liked Sylvie! I wanted more with her.

[mamculuna]

Yes, Sylvie! Very interesting character. I wanted to see more of her.

The ending was hard to pin down. I thought that the final life was the one where she killed Hitler, but possibly not. The very, very final little section didn't even clearly show that Ursula was going to be born again, I thought. But nothing certain in that book!

[ponygirl2000]

I was hoping too that section at the very end meant there was some final closure - an eternal pub of the soul. But Mrs. Haddock never made it in any version of Ursula's birth I believe.

It's funny, I discovered Atkinson because she was a Buffy fan and now I suspect she's a Doctor Who one too. Her ideas of time seem similar - time can be rewritten but there are certain fixed points that always happen.