Life After Life (Todd Family, #1) in Pick-a-Shelf

Mar 24, 2013 Kathy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: highly-recommend, england, historical-fiction, world-war-2, favorite-authors, favorites

First thought in describing this novel during and after reading is how innovative a vehicle Kate Atkinson created in presenting the story, or so it happens, stories. Reincarnation is alive (pardon pun) and well in this latest by Atkinson. I feel it is a major achievement in this author's writing career, a progression to higher thinking, so to speak. The novel starts and stops with the birth of Ursula Todd, or with major events in her lives, as she lives many variations of her life throughout the First thought in describing this novel during and after reading is how innovative a vehicle Kate Atkinson created in presenting the story, or so it happens, stories. Reincarnation is alive (pardon pun) and well in this latest by Atkinson. I feel it is a major achievement in this author's writing career, a progression to higher thinking, so to speak. The novel starts and stops with the birth of Ursula Todd, or with major events in her lives, as she lives many variations of her life throughout the novel.

I was a bit uncertain as to what my attachment to Ursula would be in the first of the book, as her birth on a snowy evening in February 1910 and her early childhood seemed to be stuck in a repetitive cycle unable to proceed. However, once the bump past her childhood was achieved, the person who is and was Ursula becomes interesting and emotionally connective. Much time is spent in London during the blitz of WWII and a lesser amount of time in Germany. It is the time in London that I found more historically interesting and revealing about Ursula. Deja vu becomes a large part of Ursula's lives, as she is able to relate to or vaguely remember things from her previous lives. For certain, there are some of Ursula's lives that are more palatable than others, ones I was happier with for her and other members of her family. Born (albeit many times) to Sylvie and Hugh Todd, she is the third of five children and the second of two daughters. Her family is hugely important in her life, and one of the compelling reasons that she has an inconsolable desire to "get things right." Many philosophical questions are raised in the repetition of her lives, and it rests with the reader to determine if any satisfactory answers are arrived at by the end of the book.

I was completely immersed in this novel and its revolving door presentation. Although the atmosphere of it was mostly dark, there were bits of humor interspersed that helped round out an existence that was temporal at best. The ending was somewhat less than satisfying for me, but I'm not sure it was fair of me to expect such an ending for a circular story such as reincarnation is. I do consider it an amazing read that does what all amazing reads should do, push me out of my comfort zone of what the world is and consider what the world might alternatively be. ...more

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Oct 22, 2017 D.G. marked it as dnf

DNFed at 5%

Started this book once, bored me to tears and never felt liking picking it up again. Time to give up on it completely.

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Jun 11, 2013 Joanna rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-read, historical-fiction, fantasy-sci-fi, rws-2014-winter

The conceit of the book is that Ursula continues to be reborn (Groundhog Day-style) into the same life, but slight differences change the outcomes. She has vague deja vu memories of previous incarnations, but not perfect recollection (i.e., not quite like Groundhog Day). The writing was quite lyrical and managed to both be the most evocative descriptions of the London blitz that I've read but also witty and quirky characters. I loved the way the stories fit together and the author managed to mak ...more

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Jun 28, 2013 Sunflower rated it it was ok

Shelves: e-books, fiction-read-2013

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 31, 2013 Cora rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, woman-author, library, world-war-ii, war, author-author-read, london, england, world-war-i, british-literature

Ursula Todd was born on a snowy day in 1910. Her life took many different paths, all ending in death. Some of her life paths were happy and some were sad. She experienced two world wars in many different ways. Sometimes, she would recognize something from an alternate path, but she never understood the feeling. I found this book very interesting. I liked some of the historical aspects of the book and I liked how seemingly small changes made big differences on her life path. It was interesting se ...more

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Mar 05, 2014 Rachel N. rated it really liked it

Ursula Todd is born in 1910 and dies at birth then Ursula Todd is born in 1910 and lives thanks to a doctors intervention. Ursula continues to live to various ages die and be reborn. I found the whole structure of the book and the many iterations of Ursula's life to be fascinating. I liked the way the author explored how one incident could change the course of a life. The only part I didn't like was the ending. It just wasn't satisfactory to me. ...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Nicole rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2013, didn-t-finish

I love the concept of how lives can change based on one small decision, so this book sounded fascinating. Atkinson wandered down so many paths of how one child could have died that I found it to be choppy and hard to get into. I gave it 100 pages then gave up.

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