#kateatkison

Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson It's odd how nearly every character in this novel has the ability to quote literature -- especially Shakespeare. Of my various Brit friends I don't know any who could quote poetry, drama, or tid-bits of novels; no, not a single one, although they do know lines of dialogue from East Enders and Monty Python.

Nevertheless, these novel characters, particularly Ursula, live lives of luxury. No sign of Dickens here! Well, without such "trappings" -- is money really a trap? -- she could not have used her reincarnation to get close to Hitler.

I'm not giving anything away: the first two pages tell you about all anyone needs to know, as foreshadowing, to keep the reader-pump primed for all the events as re-combinate, hashed, diverted, inverted, and etcetera.

A fun book.

-- Mark Beyer author of What Beauty and Max, the blind guy, and The Janitor: Or, Dostoevsky in America. To sample and buy: https://rb.gy/poyrsd