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That being said, if there is one real disadvantage to this structure it’s that character development is harder to achieve. The synergy between the narrative strands adds up to something far richer than any of them would have been individually. Various phrases and images recur too: darkness falls, a gold cigarette lighter. There are places where prior knowledge creates an almost unbearable sense of foreboding.Ĭlever use of repetition helps to keep track of what’s happening, especially at the start of sections to alert the reader that a parallel version of something they’ve seen before is about to begin. It is intensely satisfying to notice the ways the different versions of episodes in Ursula’s adult life resonate and bleed into each other: a small detail about a character may be revealed in one strand which the reader cannot un-know even when it remains unmentioned the next time that story comes around. Nobody who appreciates literary fiction would consider it hard work – in many ways it’s a delight, the dark subject matter notwithstanding – but this is a novel which both requires and rewards close reading. It takes time to tune into the rhythm of the narrative, but once I did I found myself reading it for hours at a time, completely absorbed. Complicating the timeline is one of the greatest risks a writer can take, although it’s not one Kate Atkinson needs to worry about. The family dynamics are very well drawn – especially where her sister Pamela and rebellious young aunt Izzie are concerned – and because their characters (if not their destinies) are less mutable than Ursula’s – of which more below – they lend necessary familiarity to what might otherwise have been a very confusing story. She is one of five children born to Hugh Todd and his brittle artistic wife Sylvie who live comfortably at Fox Corner, a house near Beaconsfield (26 miles NW of London). The novel spans the period 1910-1967 and Ursula’s third person narrative brings the major events of those years to life with extraordinary vividness. What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right?Īs you might imagine, this makes it virtually impossible to attempt a synopsis of the story (unlike ruining it, which would be easy), so I’m going to concentrate on other interesting aspects of which there are many, especially for anyone who writes fiction.
LIFE AFTER LIFE BOOK BY KATE ATKINSON FREE
The structure works well as a means to explore ideas which are the subject of popular fascination in both fiction and film (think Sliding Doors and Groundhog Day): the role of fate and free will in determining the course of a life, and the inevitable What If? question: This is the template for a pattern of alternative outcomes (sometimes more than two) repeated throughout the book. In one, the baby dies and in the other, she lives. The premise of Life After Life is a complex if not totally unfamiliar one: as the novel opens in February 1910 we are presented with two different accounts of protagonist Ursula Todd’s birth during a snowstorm. Any disappointment felt by fans of Brodie at his absence is likely to be shortlived if they pick up the author’s latest offering.
LIFE AFTER LIFE BOOK BY KATE ATKINSON SERIES
Life After Life marks a return to the standalone novel following the four-part series featuring police inspector turned private detective Jackson Brodie.
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Since her debut Behind the Scenes at the Museum won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year in 1995 she has consistently delivered a new book almost every two years. Unlike many other writers of that rank, she doesn’t subject her fans to long waits between titles. Kate Atkinson is one of Britain’s foremost literary novelists writing today – of this there is no doubt.