Aegis 2015
82
Book Review >>> Meghan MacMillan
Life After Life Atkinson, Kate. New York: Reagan Arthur Books, 2013. 527 pp.
“History is all about “what ifs.” In her novel, Life after Life, Kate Atkinson takes this approach to history, to explore as many ‘what ifs’ as she can through her main protagonist, Ursula Todd. Born on a snowy February night in 1910, Ursula, the third child of Sylvie and Hugh Todd, dies before she can even take her first breath; the doctor had not made it in time to deliver her. On that same February night, the doctor arrives in the nick of time and Ursula begins a life that will end, as all lives do. But in Ursula’s case, she will always begin again. For, every time she dies, she is born again on that same snowy evening. As a child, she drowns, she falls from a rooftop, and she succumbs to the Spanish flu— but all in different scenarios. Atkinson addresses these scenarios in each of her ‘lives.’ What if someone had been at the beach when she was young to save her from drowning? What if she was stopped from climbing onto that very rooftop she had fallen from? Ursula does not have memory of these previous occurrences. Instead, she gets feelings of déjà vu and feelings of fear that she cannot explain. The Todd’s housekeeper, Bridget, travels to London to celebrate the armistice at the end of the first World War but brings influenza back with her, spreading it to the Todd family, including Ursula. Every time she returns to that day, she knows she must do something to stop Bridget, but she doesn’t know why she feels that way. It takes many tries (and many deaths) until she is finally successful when she pushes the maid down the stairs, breaking her arm. This is the first time Ursula is sent to Doctor Kellet, a psychologist who is the first to bring up the concept of reincarnation to her. As Ursula ages, her lives become more complicated and she begins to deal with events ranging from rape and murder to everyday things such as choosing a career and falling in love. Ursula’s life takes on different scenarios each time she is resurrected. For instance, she falls victim to a bombing during a blitz. She is working to find survivors from that very bomb site in another life. She ends up living in Germany and befriends Hitler’s wife, Eva Braun. Then, of course, she is in the inner circle of none other than Adolf Hitler himself. Through all of this, Atkinson brings to light questions of fate—how being in the wrong (or right) place at the wrong time can impact not only one life, but potentially the entire world. Atkinson is never obvious when it comes to these small moments because they should remain as they are: small, seemingly unimportant details. She explores the idea that these moments are what really matter, and how clear hindsight really is. The reader slowly becomes able to look for these clues, every action, every conversation is suddenly monumental. Atkinson shows that everything you do is important; yes—fate can exist—but we
