Life After Life (spoilers)

[bex]

I know this book came out a few years ago but I just read it this week and have questions. Does anyone remember it? (I know I know, lol, I'm behind the times)

[bex]

Two main ones:

1) so Sylvie was also reliving her life, right? That's why she said "practice makes perfect" and had the surgeon scissors at the end to save Ursula?

2) once Ursula fixed a problem, it never happened again? So once she didn't kiss Howie, she never kissed him again in a future life?

[ufcasey]

It's been four years since I read this book (not judging you - I read older books all the time!) but from what I recall:

Ursula just kept on re-living things, learning from each time she did something that ended badly what NOT to do the next time, until she got the best possible outcome. Then the timeline would finally move on. Or something like that. I don't remember Sylvie at all.

[sassypants]

You've got the basic gist. I read this book within the last year (I think) and the imagery that always stuck in my brain was one of two things: either a video game where you reset after you lose your life, or one of those choose your own adventure books that you read the way I did which is to follow one path, finish it, then go back and choose another adventure for a different outcome.

[bex]

sassypants, the video game reference makes sense.

I say "Sylvie too" because at the end, the time that Ursula kills herself on purpose, she says "practice makes perfect." And then the next time we see her birth she is dying until Sylvie pulls out surgeon's scissors and says "practice makes perfect," which she obviously didn't have for any of Ursula's other births. So it made me think she was also experiencing multiple lives.

[Nonny]

I'm pretty sure Sylvie was also reliving her lives. There was some small, passing reference in one of Ursala's lives where she thinks she sees her mother in the city in a place/context that doesn't make sense to her (her mother should still be in the country).

Plus in the companion/sequel, A God in Ruins (which I haven't actually read), her brother Teddy relives his lives. So I think it's safe to assume it's a genetic thing.

[MrsAxilla]

Dec 1, 2017 16:11:09 GMT -5 Nonny said:

I'm pretty sure Sylvie was also reliving her lives. There was some small, passing reference in one of Ursala's lives where she thinks she sees her mother in the city in a place/context that doesn't make sense to her (her mother should still be in the country).

Plus in the companion/sequel, A God in Ruins (which I haven't actually read), her brother Teddy relives his lives. So I think it's safe to assume it's a genetic thing.

I couldn't get through A God in Ruins.  It was soooooo slooooow.....

[bex]

oh boo I was going to read A God in Ruins after I get through my current pile of "to read" books (which keeps growing for some reason lol.) Maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up though.

[Nonny]

Dec 4, 2017 10:56:10 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Dec 1, 2017 16:11:09 GMT -5 Nonny said:

I'm pretty sure Sylvie was also reliving her lives. There was some small, passing reference in one of Ursala's lives where she thinks she sees her mother in the city in a place/context that doesn't make sense to her (her mother should still be in the country).

Plus in the companion/sequel, A God in Ruins (which I haven't actually read), her brother Teddy relives his lives. So I think it's safe to assume it's a genetic thing.

I couldn't get through A God in Ruins.  It was soooooo slooooow.....

I decided not to bother with it.  I really though Kate Atkinson was a good writer, but I found the beginning of Life After Life to be incredibly tedious, and I didn't really want to go through that again.