'A God in Ruins,' Kate Atkinson's 'Life After Life' follow-up, receives mostly positive reviews
'God' centers on 'Life' protagonist Ursula's brother Teddy, a World War II veteran. Atkinson's 'Life' was highly acclaimed.
'A God in Ruins' is by Kate Atkinson.
A companion novel to Kate Atkinson鈥檚 highly acclaimed 2013 novel 鈥淟ife After Life鈥� has been released and is garnering mainly positive reviews.聽
鈥淎 God in Ruins鈥� centers on 鈥淟ife鈥� protagonist Ursula鈥檚 brother and World War II soldier Teddy, who returns from the war and starts a family. The novel follows him, his children, and grandchildren as they live through the twentieth century.
The novel was released on May 5 and was selected as one of the best books of the month by both the Monitor and Amazon. Monitor staff called it 鈥減owerful.鈥� The book is also the May selection for NPR's Morning Edition book club.
and both gave the novel positive reviews, with PW writing that, 鈥渁s in 鈥楲ife After Life,鈥� Atkinson isn鈥檛 just telling a story: she鈥檚 deconstructing, taking apart the notion of how we believe stories are told. Using narrative tricks that range from the subtlest sleight of hand to direct address, she makes us feel the power of storytelling not as an intellectual conceit, but as a punch in the gut.鈥�
Kirkus Reviews found the book to be 鈥渋maginative鈥�. A grown-up, elegant fairy tale, at least of a kind, with a humane vision of people in all their complicated splendor.鈥澛�
critic Janet Maslin was also won over, writing that the book makes the reader recall 鈥渨hat a big, old-school novel can do鈥�. almost inexhaustibly rich in scenes and characters and incidents. It deploys the whole realist bag of tricks, and none of it feels fake or embarrassing. In fact, it鈥檚 a masterly and frequently exhilarating performance by a novelist who seems utterly undaunted by the imposing challenges she鈥檚 set for herself.鈥�
There is reportedly some sort of twist in the last pages of 鈥淕od鈥� and critic Tasha Robinson was disappointed by it, though she enjoyed the rest of the book.
鈥淚t's a disappointingly familiar literary trope that feels like an afterthought when it emerges abruptly,鈥� she wrote, and she also noted that 鈥渟cenes 鈥� sometimes connect 鈥� and sometimes seem disjointed, even random鈥�. But Atkinson connects with [Teddy鈥檚 grandchild] Sunny's emotions so closely, and with the specifics of his story so naturally, that even the most seemingly irrelevant byways become entertaining鈥�. [T]he book's strengths come from a scale that dwarfs even聽Life After Life's seemingly infinite possibilities. Both novels spread across generations, tracking the changes decades bring to societies and individuals. Both delve deeply into the experience of war, the pain of the aftermath, and the way history casually swallows so many deeply personal details.鈥澛�
Not every critic, however, compared the novel favorably to its predecessor. writer Carolyn Kellogg wrote that it 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 live up to the promise of its predecessor.鈥澛�
鈥淭eddy is surrounded by far less appealing characters in 鈥楢 God in Ruins,鈥欌�� Kellogg wrote. 鈥淎ll of the emotion of the novel has pooled at the end.鈥�