Kate Atkinson loves playing with time. Most
straightforwardly her Jackson Brodie books use teasing flashbacks to enhance
the narrative, while her debut novel ‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum’ was full
of inter-generational echoes. In Life After Life it gets more complicated.
Ursula Todd is born on 11 February 1910 but
dies immediately as the doctor, held up by the snow, fails to arrive in time to
deal with a tangled cord. Then Ursula Todd is born on 11 February 1910 and the
doctor, held up by the snow, arrives just in time to deal successfully with a
tangled cord and present a healthy baby to mother Sylvie.
Thus Ursula begins a lifetime (or several)
in which she grows, succumbs to perils, regresses to 11 February 1910, grows
again, survives perils, only to meet new ones. The perils are both personal – a
beach, a high window, puberty, domestic violence – and epic – two world wars
and their aftermath.
Though Ursula experiences discomforting
feelings of déjà vu and premonitions of danger, it is only in later cycles that
a more conscious realisation dawns and provides tempting opportunities to ‘put
things right’.
In less assured hands the repetition could
be wearing, but here nuanced variations and filling of gaps make for an
enthralling account of Ursula’s life and times. The Todd family members and
their relationships are wholly believable; the period pieces, particularly the
London blitz, have authenticity; and even the surprise appearance of a dark
figure from history does not seem out of place.
It is not a quick read at 600 pages,
particularly as there is a temptation (to which I gave in) to read several of
them more than once to check whether it is your memory or Atkinson that is
playing tricks. Within those pages are comedy (Ursula has a dry wit), tragedy
(people die, often more than once), and no little history – a veritable
Shakespearean canon in the one brilliant volume.
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