海角大神

'A God in Ruins' is Kate Atkinson's brilliant follow-up to 'Life After Life'

Atkinson has a written what looks like a big, old-fashioned book 鈥� but watch out for the trickery.

Kate Atkinson鈥檚 鈥淟ife After Life鈥� was a high-concept novel that read with all the pleasures of a big old-fashioned book.

Ursula Todd was born in England in 1910 鈥� over and over and over again. Like a video game character, she went back to the beginning and started over every time she died (of drowning as a toddler, of the flu epidemic, and then multiple times in the Blitz during World War II).

鈥淲hat if you had the chance to do it again and again, until you finally got it right? Would you do it?鈥� her younger brother, Teddy, asks her at one point.

Ursula had a seemingly infinite number of chances to get her life right. Teddy has just one, in Atkinson鈥檚 new A God in Ruins. This time, Atkinson has a written what looks like a big, old-fashioned book, with just enough high-concept risks to make readers start riffling back through the pages as soon as they've done.

Close readers of 鈥淟ife After Life鈥� may notice that some of the details don鈥檛 match from book to book.

鈥淚 like to think of 鈥楢 God in Ruins鈥� as one of Ursula鈥檚 lives, an unwritten one,鈥� Atkinson writes in an afterword. 鈥淭his sounds like novelist trickery, as indeed it perhaps is, but there鈥檚 nothing wrong with a bit of trickery.鈥�

Consider yourself warned.

The novel opens with Teddy growing up at Fox Corner a boy who loves dogs, birds, his sister Ursula, and Nancy, the girl next door. The bane of his existence are the "Augustus" books his flapper aunt Izzie writes using him as a model for titular character. In an act that Teddy believes to be just as criminal as appropriating his childhood, Izzie admits to having once eaten a lark while in Europe, causing young Teddy a sleepless night.

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 just the one lark that had been silenced by Izzie. (A mouthful.) It was the generations of birds that would have come after it and now would never be born. All those beautiful songs that would never be sung,鈥� he thinks. 鈥淟ater in his life he learned the word 鈥榚xponential,鈥� and later still the word 鈥榝ractal,鈥� but for now it was a flock that grew larger and larger as it disappeared into a future that would never be.鈥�

Those silenced songs are very much on Teddy鈥檚 鈥� and Atkinson鈥檚 鈥� mind in 鈥淎 God in Ruins.鈥�

Teddy becomes an RAF pilot during World War II, participating in the bombing of Germany. 鈥淪acrifice,鈥� he remembers his mother Sylvie saying, 鈥渋s a word that makes people feel noble about slaughter.鈥�

He thinks of himself and his fellow pilots as birds flung at a wall in the hopes that, if there are enough of them, they will eventually break through. Most of them, of course, suffer the fate of a bird hitting a wall. 鈥淭heir names written on water. Or scorched into the earth. Or atomized into the air. Legion.鈥�

Teddy is part of the bombing of Hamburg and the idea of deliberately targeting women and children and the elderly is something he grapples with throughout his life. 鈥淎t the twisted heart of every war were the innocents.鈥�

Nancy, meanwhile, becomes a brilliant mathematician who spent the war in Bletchley Park deflecting questions about exactly what she did, while Ursula, as readers of 鈥淟ife After Life鈥� will remember, works in the War Office during the Blitz.

After the war 鈥� and Teddy has difficulty coming to terms with having an afterward 鈥� he determines to live the rest of his life with kindness. 鈥淗e had been reconciled to death during the war and then suddenly the war was over and there was a next day and a next day and a next day. Part of him never adjusted to having a future.鈥�

Teddy鈥檚 resolve to be kind is tested most by his resentful daughter, Viola (who comes closest to being a caricature, until a few heartbreaking revelations at the end of the novel) and rewarded most by his granddaughter, Bertie. Bertie, whose quick intelligence reminds Teddy of her grandmother, survives Viola鈥檚 neglectful, bad-tempered stabs at parenting better than her brother, Sunny.

鈥淭eddy knew he had failed Viola but he wasn鈥檛 sure how. (鈥楧o you ever think it might be the other way round?鈥� Bertie said. 鈥楾hat she might have failed you?鈥� 鈥業t doesn鈥檛 work like that,鈥� Teddy said.)鈥�

Atkinson threads visual motifs throughout the novel, from birds 鈥� enough to give Tippi Hedron nightmares for years 鈥� to the red lines tracing their paths through the bombing runs Teddy pilots his Halifax on to the red pull cords in the nursing home where he goes to live after breaking his hip. Fragments of poetry and English poets 鈥� especially William Blake 鈥� serve as touchstones throughout.

In addition to hopscotching through time from World War II all the way to 2012 and back again, the narrator includes parentheticals about the fates of characters and a few narrative winks for readers of 鈥淟ife After Life.鈥�

During the war, for example, Teddy has an affair with a wealthy young woman whose family has casually draped sheets over their priceless antiques and artwork in London. Teddy was enamored of a little Rembrandt and his lover suggests he take it. 鈥淚f he took the Rembrandt his life would be quite different. He would be a thief, for one thing. A different narrative鈥�. In later life, he wished he had appropriated the painting. No one would have believed it was a genuine Rembrandt, it would have existed entirely for his guilty pleasure, hanging on a suburban wall. He should have done. The London house was hit by a V-2, the Rembrandt lost for ever.鈥�

Atkinson also uses her writing to discuss the art of writing. Teddy becomes a nature columnist and a small-town newspaperman. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a lot of 鈥榖鈥檚,鈥� lad,鈥� Bill said鈥� of one of Teddy鈥檚 early efforts. 鈥� 鈥業 bet there鈥檚 a word for that.鈥� 鈥楢lliteration,鈥� Teddy said and Bill Morrison said, 鈥榃ell, try not to.鈥� 鈥�

She seems to come down on the same populist side of art articulated over the years by everyone from the director in 鈥淎ll About Eve鈥� to 鈥淗igh Fidelity鈥� author Nick Hornby. Teddy鈥檚 Aunt Izzie, who earned a Croix de Guerre that she never told anyone about during World War I, 鈥渄iscovered that fiction could be both a means of resurrection and of preservation. 鈥榃hen all else has gone, art remains,鈥� she said to Sylvie during the next war. 鈥楾he Adventures of Augustus is art? 鈥� Sylvie said, raising an elitist eyebrow.... Izzie鈥檚 definition of art was broader than Sylvie鈥檚 definition, of course. 鈥楢rt is anything created by one person and enjoyed by another.鈥� 鈥�

At one point, Viola, who becomes a successful novelist late in life, comes across a lending library at a spiritual retreat.

鈥淭here was a handwritten sign attached to the shelf that said, 鈥楶lease dear friend, leave these books in the condition that you found them,鈥� which was ridiculous as no book could ever be left in the condition that you found it in because it was changed every time it was read by someone.鈥�

The same thing, of course, can be said of readers, who are never in quite the same condition when they finish a book. When it comes to a novel like 鈥淎 God in Ruins,鈥� that change will always be for the better.