Life After Life

I haven't read Kate Atkinson before, I saw this in a bookshop and immediately the story concept grabbed me.

What if you could live life again and again, each time taking a different path. This is what happens to Ursula, from the moment of her birth where in one reality she dies immediately after her birth but in another she lives.

The book progresses with this concept, during one childhood day at the beach she wanders too far into the sea and cannot be saved. In another a local artist spots her and saves her and life continues.

I didn't find the book confusing. I found the childhood chapters slower than those during the early war years where Ursula has so many possible futures and each so different it made fascinating reading. I don't want to give too much away but the scenario with Ursula in Germany pre Second World War was brilliantly written.

The only problem I had with the book is when your entire concept is that whenever the lead character dies time resets itself and she gets another go how on earth does it ever end...the premise that Ursula could change the future for everyone is a great concept but it doesn't fulfil when time immediately resets again and her act is wiped out. And so you get the feeling the author could be writing forever and not ever would we get a final conclusion and that is the books only flaw. It didn't feel finished and that was a little frustrating.

I was really excited to devote some time over break to reading an adult book that was one every top 10 list of the year, but alas, it was not as I had hoped. The first 100 pages of the book were zippy, witty, and interesting, but the middle 300-400 truly plodded on. The last 20 pages zipped along again, but by that point I was too annoyed that I had invested that much time for 1/4 of a good book.