We also realize that even the most gentle souls, men like Teddy Todd, who in boyhood hoped to write poetry, can be trained to behave viciously during wartime. Such graphic writing slams war’s visceral brutality home. The smoke drifts upward to Teddy’s cockpit, carrying the smell of burning human flesh with it. He participates in violence of war itself, including a bombing raid so intense it causes a firestorm on the ground. Teddy witnesses more than his share of sickening mishaps, including the live flaying of a fellow soldier and a freak decapitation. A World War II fighter pilot, Teddy flew a Halifax bomber, participating in the bombing campaigns that flattened civilian Germany.īoth Life After Life and A God in Ruins feature Atkinson’s trademark bloody gore. Taking its title from Emerson’s poem Nature, A God in Ruins focuses on Ursula’s brother Teddy. One reassuring constant is Ursula’s family, particularly her younger siblings. Over the course of various fates, Ursula comes to understand and accept her peculiar lot. In 2013’s Life After Life, Kate Atkinson introduced Ursula Todd, an Englishwoman who lives not once, but repeatedly.
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