Life After Life

JonS reviewed Life After Life (Todd Family, #1) by Kate Atkinson

Review of 'Life After Life (Todd Family, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Just finished reading this for the second time and it's every bit as good as I thought first time around. There's something very clever going on here as Kate Atkinson plays with multiple timelines and widely different versions of a single life, but the book never falls into the 'literary fiction trap' of being so clever that you don't care about the people who inhabit it.
This goes on the list of books I'll read again and again.

CTD reviewed Life After Life (Todd Family, #1) by Kate Atkinson

Review of 'Life After Life (Todd Family, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Intricately layered, each life different in unexpected ways. A lovely read.

crabbygirl reviewed Life After Life (Todd Family, #1) by Kate Atkinson

Review of 'Life After Life (Todd Family, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

not sure how i feel about this one. at first i thought we were mistaken, ursula didn't die in the first chapter - but quickly realized that whenever she died, the story started again. but by the time the book ended, it seemed that other characters could restart life as well with mixed results (teddy happily reunited with nancy, but sylvia takes her own life as if she cannot endure another repeat)

i also thought it would end when ursula 'learned' from her mistakes, and killed hitler - but it didn't. and that confused me. all the talk of reincarnation with her psychiatrist, and the horrors of war, and even the prologue indicated that was the climax - to stop it. but the fact that life restarted after that ending made the whole thing seem inconsequential. and rather depressing.

since finishing the book, i've read a reviewer compare it to …

not sure how i feel about this one. at first i thought we were mistaken, ursula didn't die in the first chapter - but quickly realized that whenever she died, the story started again. but by the time the book ended, it seemed that other characters could restart life as well with mixed results (teddy happily reunited with nancy, but sylvia takes her own life as if she cannot endure another repeat)

i also thought it would end when ursula 'learned' from her mistakes, and killed hitler - but it didn't. and that confused me. all the talk of reincarnation with her psychiatrist, and the horrors of war, and even the prologue indicated that was the climax - to stop it. but the fact that life restarted after that ending made the whole thing seem inconsequential. and rather depressing.

since finishing the book, i've read a reviewer compare it to a video game - one where the influenza epidemic, and the blitz, are the harder 'bosses'. how true.

Damien Ryan

rated it

June 10, 2018

GrandmaY

rated it

Dec. 17, 2016

Heather

rated it

July 26, 2015

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