Fiction | Book Chatter

Life After Life
By Kate Atkinson
(Reagan Arthur Books, Hardcover, 9780316176484, April 2013, 544pp.)

The Short of It:

Interesting premise and at times, fluid, beautifully written passages but overall, one of the most frustrating reads I’ve read in years.

The Rest of It:

The story begins in 1930. Ursula Todd assassinates Hitler while he is sitting in a cafe in Munich and she dies in the process. Next, the story takes us back to 1910, the night of Ursula’s birth. Due to bad weather, the doctor is unable to attend her birth and the poor girl dies with the umbilical cord wrapped tightly around her neck. As Atkinson takes us back and forth through time, we see Ursula in various stages of life. Sometimes, she’s a child and ends up drowning in the ocean, other times…she’s older and as readers, we get to spend a little time with her family before tragedy strikes.

But tragedy does strike and over and over again, at that.

I really had a hard time with this one. The writing itself wasn’t bad. In fact, much of it is beautifully written but I didn’t care for Ursula all that much so seeing her die and come back so many times was a bit much for me. Oh, and it was long, which of course felt even longer with all of the back and forth going on.

The one thing that kept me reading is the idea that one small change can affect your life. That aspect of it was interesting to explore but it was ultimately lost within the structure of the novel itself.

My book club is discussing this book later this week. I’m interested in how the discussion will go because I feel as if I’ve spent so much time with it, that I don’t want to spend more time discussing it.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Museum of Extraordinary Things
By Alice Hoffman
(Scribner Book Company, Hardcover, 9781451693560, February 2014, 368pp.)

The Short of It:

Freak shows typically grab my attention but the oddities contained within these pages piqued my interest but failed to impress me.

The Rest of It:

The museum in question, is a Coney Island attraction run by Professor Sardie. Sardie is part magician, part scientist but mostly a con artist with a knack for finding wayward souls. All of his “attractions” are mainly people afflicted by some horrible disfigurement. If the affliction is not obvious enough to garner huge crowds, then he helps them “transform” into something that is.

This way of thinking applies to his ten-year-old daughter, Coralie as well. Born with webbed fingers, she is dyed blue and taught to swim long distances and to hold her breath for long periods of time so she can become the Human Mermaid.

As the surrounding area attractions become bigger and better, Sardie is forced to up his game and resorts to “after hour” shows which feature his daughter, naked. Yes, he is that kind of man. Their relationship is tenuous at best, but the forced humiliation of having to perform, naked, is not something she can ever forgive him for.

There is a lot of stuff going on in this novel but none of it seemed thoroughly developed to me. Hoffman piques my interest in a lot of places but none of it seems to come together all that well and that, ultimately, is what made this an okay read, as opposed to a riveting one.

I don’t know about you but I am fascinated by freak shows and oddities of nature so although this wasn’t a complete success for me, I still enjoyed it enough to want to read her work again.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Source: Sent to me by the publisher via Edelweiss.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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