"A fug of tobacco smoke and damp clammy air hit her as she entered the cafe."
Review: I'm actually writing this review MUCH LATER than anticipated (after having read 3 other books in between) so you must excuse me if it seems a bit all over the place and disjointed. I promise to get back into the regular habit of reviewing a book immediately after I've read it. Most book bloggers would probably have just decided NOT to review a book if it was read several weeks ago? I'm not that kind of blogger. I feel if it was worth my reading cover to cover, it's worth my taking the time to review it. SO, with that said...
I had decided last year to read this book after seeing it several times in the book store and being intrigued by it's title and cover. I mean, look at that cover! Tell me you wouldn't AT LEAST pick it up in a bookstore and read the back just to see what it's all about?? Well, last year, when it was still in hardcover, that is exactly what I did. I became even more intrigued. However, my wrist being as delicate as it is, the weight of a book has become one of my main determinants when it comes to what I read. I'm not against reading a book in the comfort of my own home, but I find reading while I'm on the train to and from work (or wherever) is best for me. And I've sprained my wrist carrying a book one too many times for my liking. Hence why I opted to wait till this year when I knew the paperback edition would be released, making the weight a bit more manageable. If this is a factor for you as it is for me, I hope this paragraph was helpful!
Now, onto the story and structure. It's a bit different that anything I've ever read. I'm not unfamiliar with the idea of jumping around in history, even if it happens to be decades at a time. That was fine and expected seeing as this is about a woman who strangely dies and is "reborn" in a sense over and over again in a multitude of ways in her lifetime. It's a bit more complicated than that, but you get the idea.
Ursula is her name and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the book. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the scenes that covered her youth with her siblings and her mother. The idea that a child would understand what's happening to her so much so that she does all she can to prevent her own death or the death of those around her, if she can, is commendable. I felt for her and found the way she convinced herself what she was doing was right, to be something we all battle within ourselves all the time. The human condition...
The second half is Ursula all grown up and I honestly didn't care for it. There were too many decade changes happening and much too quickly. I had to keep back tracking to the first half of the book just to remind myself the year Ursula was born and what happened them versus what's happening to her now and so on. It can make you feel like you're reading a 1,000 page book as opposed to a just over 500 page book! I feel as though, in an effort to seem creative Kate Atkinson lost the humanity and dove head first into the bizarre and just plain impossible.
Don't get me wrong, in the first half she had me believing that this little girl really was dying and then living again, only to die again, over and over and over. It was as easy as one breathes for me to believe it because children, or childlike minds, don't allow outside doubts or negative outside forces to interfere in the impossible. As she got older and hardened by her very existence, so did I, with her. I guess that would make Kate Atkinson a great writer? Probably. But while I was expecting something a little less macabre by the end I'm afraid that's all that was left. Then it was over almost as quickly as it began.
Summary: 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, the third child of a wealthy 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 any number of ways. Ursula's world is in turmoil, facing the unspeakable evil of the two greatest wars in history. What power and force can one woman exert over the fate of civilization -- if only she has the chance?
Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant -- this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
529 pages
Back Bay Books, 2014
Paperback 1st Edition
fiction
Finished in 10 days
Rating: ★★
To learn more about Kate Atkinson visit her site here.
Was it anything like CLOUD ATLAS? (Don't know if you read that or not.)
ReplyDeleteI have not read Cloud Atlas. I actually haven't even purchased that book yet either. It's on my TBR list of books that I plan on buying some time this year.
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