AFTER LIFE HAS PASSED

The first of the Jackson Brodie books, titled “Case Histories,” was written by Kate Atkinson, and I just finished reading it. I felt it was quite decent, but it wasn’t completely outstanding. Atkinson’s other stand-alone novels, in particular “behind the scenes at the museum” and her most recent work, “life after life,” which has been shortlisted for this year’s category of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, have been mentioned in comments left by a number of other bloggers, who have suggested that I might be more inclined to favor them. One thing I am happy to report is that they were correct! The fundamental idea underlying “life after life” is somewhat comparable to that of the movie “Groundhog Day,” although it takes place in a totally different milieu and has distinct effects that are less hilarious. Ursula Todd was born on a snowy day in February of 1910 to a wealthy family. She has lived her life several times over from her birth till now. Nevertheless, Ursula is not aware of this, in contrast to Phil Connors, despite the fact that she often has emotions of déjà vu. The book focuses on a number of alternate, alternative interpretations of significant occasions in her life, each of which leads her life in a totally different route. Accidentally falling from the top of her home when she was a youngster is the cause of her death in one of her lives. In a previous existence, she is stillborn and her umbilical chord causes her to be strangled. When she was in another life, she married a spouse who was abusive. She lives in Germany in a previous life, where she becomes friends with Eva Braun, and so on and so forth. It was brought to my attention that one of Atkinson’s primary accomplishments in the work titled “case histories” was the manner in which she woven together the three distinct threads of the plot. She is equally skilled at weaving together the several versions of Ursula’s life and the personalities who figure in them, despite the fast changes in time that occur in the chronological order of events. In each and every iteration of Ursula’s existence, there are some characteristics that are consistent with one another, and there are also traces of residue from her prior lifetimes. In order to demonstrate how innovative Atkinson has been in exploiting the primary premise, she has retold the narrative using the same people but with small alterations. The manner in which she has done this is immensely enjoyable. She also does an excellent job of capturing the lives of the British middle class throughout the first half of the twentieth century, particularly in the sequences that take place during the war. Even though Hilary Mantel has been the most successful author in recent months when it comes to literary accolades, I believe that “Life after Life” has the potential to be a strong candidate for the Women’s Prize for Fiction this year. I will very certainly look at “behind the scenes at the museum,” but this week I will (finally!) be reading “nw” by Zadie Smith and “bring up the corpses” by Hilary Mantel in preparation for the shortlist readings event for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, which will take place on June 4th… Good morning, everyone! Visit my website by clicking on this link to get further information on life after death. Life after life is a book written by Kate Atkinson. Here it is.