Although it doesn't seem possible now, there were blue skies to accompany our second meeting. We cosied round a table in the British Council library and set forth to discuss our first impressions of Life After Life.
After commenting on the difficulties of trying to gage how many pages one has read on a kindle, I realised I'd set very little of the book as "homework". Now, thanks to the lovely Marcelle, I also have a paper version. There are times when only the real thing will do.
There was general agreement that everyone was enjoying the book, although the whole stopping/starting was, perhaps, slightly bewildering at first.
The early section of the novel contains several dates which stand out as historically important and others specific to Ursula. Sometimes the two coincide. Here is a list of dates and some links for historical background.
The question of whether or not Ursula remembers, or is conscious of what is happening to her arose. At this early stage the answer is not clearly apparent and those of us who had read further on had to bite our tongues in order not to give the game away.
Armistice celebrations
We then cast our gaze on the first chapter, Be Ye Men of Valour, and discussed the many possible outcomes of this rainy Munich afternoon (I imagine it's afternoon, there's nothing to say it isn't) full of coffee, cakes and an old Webley Mark V revolver. Yet again, more of that later on.
Rather like the storyline we jumped around again, this time to consider one of the quotes in the epigraph:
"What if we had the chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right? Wouldn't that be wonderful?"
Edward Beresford Todd
How slyly Kate Atkinson slipped in this quote! Next to Nietzsche and Plato, one might think that Edward Beresford Todd were some obscure British philosopher, not one of Ursula's younger brothers.
We talked about this possibility, taking into account our own personal regrets and finally agreed that although we might have done things differently we don't concur with Teddy's wishful thinking. Carrying on from this, we also discussed how our different actions second (or third) time round might have had other repercussions for those around us. Obviously this idea is central to the novel and the more we read, the more important it will become.
Other topics included which character we most liked at the moment. The winner, for now, is Sylvie. Will that change? Least liked character went to Maurice, obviously. We also compared the portrayal of female and male characters, but concluded too many of them are still children to do this question justice. Having read the majority of Atkinson's work I can say there are always strong female characters and sometimes strong male ones too. Although that only seems to happen when the male is also the leading character. We concluded that Atkinson has had strong female influences in her own life upon which to draw her characters.
Choose something for Izzie or Sylvie to wear before the war and later
We read the first part of Behind the Scenes - a section on the official Kate Atkinson website where she writes about her background and inspiration.
Izzie or Sylvie?
1914 theatre costume. Victoria and Albert Museum
We read the first part of Behind the Scenes - a section on the official Kate Atkinson website where she writes about her background and inspiration.
There was just a few minutes to divvy up the remaining chapters for our next meeting and then it was time to go.
What if? What if? There's plenty to get our teeth into next time.
Up to chapter December 1923 for Saturday 8th March.
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