Summer Reading: Life After Life

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you got it right? That is the premise of Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and it is so good! I started reading it while waiting to get my car serviced. The dealership was unusually busy and I had to wait for quite a while but I didn't even notice the time because I was so engrossed. I was genuinely surprised to see that three hours had gone by! When I finished the novel in the wee hours of the next morning, I was quite sad to be finished with such an absorbing story. Ursula Todd is born on a snowy night in England in 1910 but she dies before she can take a breath because the umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck. In the next chapter, Ursula is born and lives because, this time, the doctor is able to make it through the snowstorm and is able to save her. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Ursula Todd. Every time she dies (from influenza, from an abusive husband, during the Blitz), she returns with an innate ability to save herself from peril (although it takes her a few tries to save herself from the influenza). She always returns to that snowy night but, lest you think that it becomes tedious, her birth is described differently every time from the perspectives of different characters. It is an interesting device because you become intimately acquainted with everyone in Ursula's life. She leads many vastly different lives, often because of one small decision, but there are common threads in her life (all of the main characters are recognizably the same) which is fun to look for as you read. Ultimately, Ursula realizes her ability and decides that she has a higher purpose. It is absolutely brilliant! Atkinson's writing is beautiful.  Her attention to detail and her descriptions of historical events, especially the Blitz, are incredibly powerful. The theme of this book is so intriguing in that even the simplest decision can have far-reaching consequences.  I'll admit that I have been thinking about this idea non-stop since I finished it.  I highly recommend this beautifully written and though-provoking novel.