Life After Life
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Paperback
Warning some spoilers ahead
If you're reading this review, you probably already know the premise of Life after Life. The cover blurb sums it up: Ursula Todd is born, dies, but is born again so that she gets another chance to live. Every death sends her back to the beginning. If you've ever heard of parallel worlds you'll find this concept easy to follow. The author does it very well by showing how small decisions have big impacts. I found this book a fast and entertaining read; and despite what you might think at the start,the author doesn't make us read the very beginning of each life after she makes it out of infancy. It's very evocative, very compelling writing. The descriptions of life in WWII in particular are vivid and gripping.
But where is it going? One of the characters in the novel says something like, "What if you could live your life over and over till you got it right?" The prologue of the book certainly indicates that's whats happening. After several iterations Ursula has a strong sense of deja-vu, which enables her to avoid previous fatal encounters and even to know in advance the names of people she has apparently never met. Some of the choices that lead to her survival doom other people. After a series of lives that all end the same way, she does something different and we finally get to the scenes in the prologue. I thought, this is it, this is why she's come back so many times!
But it's not. She dies there too, and comes back yet again. Here's where I started mumbling to myself. If the earlier (very satisfying) scene were The Reason, if it were the right decision, she shouldn't have to come back. Or if she did, she'd have to repeat that scene over and over again for as long as she kept being reborn. But in the next life, she takes yet another path. Oh wait, that one has a good outcome too, maybe that was the right decision. But no, the book ends with a familiar scene set just before her birth, implying that this cycle will go on for eternity. That is a fascinating idea too, but it wasn't the story that I expected after reading the prologue.
I suspect if you know a bit about various philosophies of reincarnation, fate, and so forth you will get more out of this book than someone like me, who reads for mere entertainment. I certainly could have missed some clues. But it's excellent entertainment even if you're not a philosopher, and I'm still thinking about it a few days later, which doesn't usually happen. Highly recommended.
If you're reading this review, you probably already know the premise of Life after Life. The cover blurb sums it up: Ursula Todd is born, dies, but is born again so that she gets another chance to live. Every death sends her back to the beginning. If you've ever heard of parallel worlds you'll find this concept easy to follow. The author does it very well by showing how small decisions have big impacts. I found this book a fast and entertaining read; and despite what you might think at the start,the author doesn't make us read the very beginning of each life after she makes it out of infancy. It's very evocative, very compelling writing. The descriptions of life in WWII in particular are vivid and gripping.
But where is it going? One of the characters in the novel says something like, "What if you could live your life over and over till you got it right?" The prologue of the book certainly indicates that's whats happening. After several iterations Ursula has a strong sense of deja-vu, which enables her to avoid previous fatal encounters and even to know in advance the names of people she has apparently never met. Some of the choices that lead to her survival doom other people. After a series of lives that all end the same way, she does something different and we finally get to the scenes in the prologue. I thought, this is it, this is why she's come back so many times!
But it's not. She dies there too, and comes back yet again. Here's where I started mumbling to myself. If the earlier (very satisfying) scene were The Reason, if it were the right decision, she shouldn't have to come back. Or if she did, she'd have to repeat that scene over and over again for as long as she kept being reborn. But in the next life, she takes yet another path. Oh wait, that one has a good outcome too, maybe that was the right decision. But no, the book ends with a familiar scene set just before her birth, implying that this cycle will go on for eternity. That is a fascinating idea too, but it wasn't the story that I expected after reading the prologue.
I suspect if you know a bit about various philosophies of reincarnation, fate, and so forth you will get more out of this book than someone like me, who reads for mere entertainment. I certainly could have missed some clues. But it's excellent entertainment even if you're not a philosopher, and I'm still thinking about it a few days later, which doesn't usually happen. Highly recommended.
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