Perhaps the one thing that could have saved this book was some form of reader-character bond.

If the book had been half as long as it is, this might have been okay, but as it is I felt trapped in a pointless, inescapable loop (which is probably also how Ursula felt). The result is a very redundant narrative that forces readers to read the same scene several times from several different angles. Yet though each of Ursula’s lives are different, the changes are often very small, and many times Ursula still ends up dying the same death in spite of an attempt to avoid it.

Naturally, she learns from past (future?) experiences and is able to alter her life a bit with each reincarnation. Every time Ursula Todd dies, she is sent back to the moment of her birth, fated to live her life over and over again. This issue is not all the author’s fault it’s inherent in the concept of Life After Life itself. Atkinson takes a lot of time with every scene, which is certainly her prerogative, but I was constantly wondering when things would start to happen-even during moments of high tension, the pace felt glacial. The repetitive, circular structure of the book, as Ursula experiences the same events again and again with often minute variations, does not lend itself to a fast or particularly engaging reading experience. The truth is, Life After Life took a long time to pick up momentum, and even then it was still fairly slow.

Finding out the specific details of this connection was what kept me reading Life After Life-so as hooks go, I guess that opening scene was excellent, though I don’t think the rest of the novel sustained that initial moment of interest. Sure, it was a point of interest to find out how the opening scene, in which Adolf Hitler is assassinated in 1930, connects with the seemingly mundane middle-class English life of Ursula Todd. I admire Atkinson’s prowess, but, aside from that, Life After Life honestly didn’t do much for me. This nonlinear, time-travel/parallel-universe type story is presented with extreme skill, as each nonconsecutive section becomes one piece of the puzzle of Ursula Todd’s lives. In Life After Life, Kate Atkinson shows an impressive talent in her ability to conduct and control a complex plot.

Summary of life after life novel