In this book, Harry August lives an undistinguished life as a British person and then he dies. But he is born again and soon realizes that he has all the memories of his previous life. He dies again and is reborn with all the memories of his previous two lives. And so it goes. Harry is always born in a bathroom of a train station as his birth mother dies. He is adopted by a couple and he has to live his childhood and adolescence over and over again, despite having the knowledge of an adult. Eventually there are secret societies, espionage, and world-wide chaos.
The first third of this book is a bit slow-moving, at least it was for me. But then there came a turning point when I simply couldn't put the book down. I had to know if Harry was going to be okay and I had to know how Harry was going to make it out. Generally speaking, I do not like time travel books, but this is an interesting twist on time travel and I thought it took the Groundhog's Day plot and did something new with it.
3.5/5 stars
Notable lines:
"In thirty years it would be a parody accent, used by comics to expose the sad cliché of the lonely man who believed that Ascot was sacred and could never quite get a ticket." (page 128)
When we were shopping for my husband's wedding suit, we were at a fancy men's suiting store waiting for the tailor to do a fitting. We were poking around, sort of looking at ties and another customer was turning around a giant lazy Susan and asked "is this your entire selection of ascots?" Dear Reader, I've never been ANYWHERE with a larger selection of ascots and sometimes when one of us is being picky about shopping for something, we will use the ascot line. Now you know one of our inside jokes.
"It is perhaps the universal experience of travellers - I have only my own view to judge it by - but there is a moment, in the dead hours of the night, when a man may sit upon a platform in an empty station, waiting for the last train upon a long journey, and regardless of the personal experience of that individual, he ceases to be an "I" and becomes a "he."" (page 144)
I think we all have that out-of-body experience when on a trip somewhere. I was doing a training in Canada one January when weather happened (because Canada + January) and I found myself sleeping in the Winnipeg airport with my luggage. I swear I thought the whole thing was happening to someone else. Also, there were A LOT of dogs in the Winnipeg airport - just LARGE dogs wandering around the baggage claim and it just seemed like a dream that was happening to someone else. The people were SO nice, the dogs were SO plentiful, and I just have fond memories of Winnipeg.
""We're just fucking soldiers. We kill some guys, they kill our guys, we kill their guys back - none of it fucking means anything, you know? Just numbers on a page, and only when the numbers get big enough do the fat cats who decide this shit sit down and go, 'Wow, let's make the decision we were always gonna have to make anyway.'...And you know the best bit?...None of it fucking matters. Not one bullet, not one drop of blood. None of it makes any fucking difference at all.":(page 217)
Bleak.
Things I Looked Up:
There was a plot point about China under Mao Zedong and I honestly just didn't know the timeline because my knowledge of history is shaky. (page 287)
Hundred Flowers Campaign (1956-1957) - Mao Zedong basically encouraged citizens to openly criticize the Community Party. This didn't go well for people who took him up on his offer.
Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) - This was Mao Zedong's plan to reorganize the farms of China into communes. It was a disaster for many reasons and estimates range from 15 - 55 million people died (55 MILLION!!).
Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) - Attack on cultural and intellectual elites. Devastation to culture and tradition.
It sounds intriguing and hats off for sticking with it till it got to the page turner stage!
ReplyDeleteI had to look up what an ascot was - I *thought* I knew (and was in fact right)...but still. Who wears Ascots? I think this is a HILARIOUS inside joke.
ReplyDeleteAlso you are so right: Canada + January = cold. Glad Winnipeg treated you well, though! And good to know even the dogs are extra friendly up here :)
This sounds kind of fascinating, to be honest. It reminds me of Life After Life, in some ways. Have you read that? (I kind of assume you have, but maybe not?)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes on the out of body experiences. I still vividly remember the first time it happened to me. In a local department store, when I was about 12, and out with a parent and my brother to buy school supplies. I felt like I was floating and that it was 'someone else' walking around with them. So strange. It doesn't happen often but it's usually in a public place for me (though not the Winnipeg airport... seriously, January in Manitoba?) with lots of bright light. Weird, definitely.