So...Life After Life. Just finished it.

[sassytheFIRST]

I thought it was an intriguing concept and quite well done. Bits tremendously well painted and moving - the suicide in Berlin, working as an ARP warden and finding the baby Emil...

My question is was it coincidence that Ursula kept being able to start again? Or was it her conscious choice to go back, live it again and make better choices this time?

Was not wax

It was very clever. Imagine the amount of notes everywhere KA must have had to avoid continuity (or non-continuity?!) errors. Or perhaps her editor had to work extra hard.

One minus point for me was the introduction of some random extra characters towards the end: Roland, Izzy's son, for one. The book seemed to be starting off again which may have been unintentional but was rather unsatisfying for the reader.

intentional [of the author], I meant.

Just finished this book too. I loved it, it fascinated me, but I'm also totally frustrated by the ending!

I loved Behind the scenes too, trying to decide which of hers to read next.

I loved this book.
But can somebody please tell me what happened with the cigarette case?

Most books have awful endings IMHO. This one was just

I hated this book, thought it was shit, especially all the stuff in Germany.

Re cigarette case - IIRC, we found out through the cigarette case that the older guy was cheating on her.

Cote thank you. I didn't really understand the character Renee and why she has the same turn of phrase as Hugh. Sad the naval chap was cheating on Ursula but then he was on his wife too.

I don't think she chose to go back, she wasn't even properly aware of what was happening.

She seemed to have a vague deja vu about certain things, and that bit where her mother decided to buy the scissors and later on used them and there was that odd comment about it, I think it was happening to the mother too, and she also had a vague feeling that some things had happened before without really knowing what was different this time.

I loved the bit with the maid, Bridget, and the illness. And the comment about how at least nobody was pushed down the stairs, which meant something to Ursula and her mother but they didn't quite know what.

I really enjoyed the book, but yes, I would have liked something a little more to the ending too. Not sure what though. Perhaps it will have changed the next time we read it

Read today she's doing a sequel based around Teddy. Can't wait.

Interesting that so many people loved this book. I was bored from the start, didnt engage with any of the characters, didn't find it particularly well written. Just found it really frustrating, after the 20th 'and darkness fell' I just wanted to scream. Gave up on it in the end, which isn't like me. A reviewer said that it was a poor pastiche of The Children's Book' which was sat on my shelf so have started that and am really enjoying it. Puts me off reading anything else of Kate Atkinson's.

I didn't give up on it (I almost never do) but thought it was dull and uninspired. The protagonist was the dullest person with the most boring life imaginable, and if seemed cruel to make her relive those boring lives, and make us read them all.

I did find the moral of the story worthy: That we could all have bend that 'slut' or that wise aunt or that relative who committed suicide or whoever if circumstances were a little different. But ultimately, it was a light read.

If you want a (very different) slightly scifiish book set in WWII I recommend Blackout by Connie Willis.

I quite enjoyed Life After Life, but would have appreciated more exploration of what exactly was going on.