A God in Ruins

It's been a while since I've written anything about books here, but that doesn't mean I haven't been reading them. And the last book I read, A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, was one of those books which after a few chapters I decided to read really slowly and attentively, because it is great and meaningful and complex and beautiful, and I didn't want to rush through it. Meaning that so far this year, it has been the best book I've read.
A God in Ruins runs parallel to Life after Life, which I'd read and loved a couple of years ago. In that novel, Ursula Todd lives her live again and again, trying to kill Adolf Hitler before he rises to power. It has vivid descriptions of the Blitz, as well as beautiful imagery of the British upper middle class in the twenties and thirties. In this novel, (a 'companion piece', rather than a sequel, according to Kate Atkinson) we follow the life of Teddy Todd, Ursula's younger brother (and one of the more sympathetic characters of Life after Life). It doesn't give any conclusions as to which of Ursula's lives finally became the 'true' one, we just have to see this as one version of reality. In this, Ted becomes a bomber pilot in the War, flying his Halifax deep into German country to bomb industrial areas (at first) and helpless civilians (as the war progresses). But it is about more than just WWII, as several other chapters tell of his life after the war, his marriage, his daughter Viola, and his grandchildren Bertie and Sunny. We don't just follow Ted, but Viola, Bertie, and Sunny as well. They are wildly different characters, each a product of their parents, their upbringing, and the time they live in. Their relationships don't always run smoothly, with the children often being the smarter ones than their parents, but as we (the reader) can look into their heads and see their histories and the decisions that made them who they are, we can sympathise with all of them.
The novel has some wonderful phrases that will stick in my mind for a while. "When the time came people stopped trying to forget the war, and started trying to remember it"; clearly painting the difference between Ted's generation and Viola's; between the people who lived through the war and don't need to remember to make sure something like that never happens again, and those born long after it, who can't really appreciate the sacrifices made by there parents. "Bertie loved her grandfather. Her grandfather loved Bertie. It was the simplest arrangement." closely followed by "Sunny loved his grandfather. His grandfather loved Sunny. It was the most complicated arrangement." Two sets of almost identical phrases, showing the difference in two very complex interpersonal relationships that form the backbone of the book.
Then there are the many literary, cultural, and historical allusions that run through the novel. I'm sure I missed at least half of these, as many are to Paradise Lost and Pilgrim's Progress, and it's been a while since I read those, but the ones I did get brought a smile to my face. And you can easily read it without knowing about the extra layer. Smart little things like; "'Out,' she said, shooing Izzy toward the front door, and again, 'Out' 'Damed spot,' Hugh murmured." will ring a familiar bell, even if you've never read or seen Macbeth.
And in the end, as Kate Atkinson writes in her afterword, the novel really is about fiction, about telling stories, about living in a fictional world or living a version of yourself that you have decided to become. Especially Viola has a tendency to make the world the way she likes it to be, and to point to the fictional actions of others as the cause for her own character and place in life. Which can be a frustrating read, especially when you know Ted's or Bertie's or Sunny's version of the events, but every good book has characters you love to hate. And in the end, you can be the judge. What was real, and what wasn't?