A God in Ruins is the follow-up to Atkinson's critically acclaimed Life After Life, which I reviewed last week. While Life After Life traces the many incarnations of Ursula, this volume explores the experiences of her younger brother, Teddy. Teddy is the pet of the family; he is clearly his mother's favourite, his aunt bases a series of boy's adventure books on him, and he grows up to be a fighter pilot and hero during World War II. While much of Life after Life focuses on Ursula's experiences on the ground in London during the Blitz, A God in Ruins explores similar events from the perspective of a bomber pilot who brings the same indiscriminate rain of death to German towns and civilians. This juxtaposition of experience creates intense moral ambiguity and ethical tension throughout the novel.
As one would expect from Atkinson, A God in Ruins is rich with observations that are simultaneously funny and profound. For example, when the 11 year old Teddy tries to explain the beauty of the lark to his aunt: "It was impossible to instruct on the subject of beauty, of course. You were either moved by it or you weren't. His sisters, Pamela and Ursula, were. His elder brother, Maurice, wasn't. His brother Jimmy was too young for beauty, his father possibly too old."
If you were like me and were disappointed at the end of Life After Life and wished there was more, this book is for you. It brings back to life the eccentric and heroic Todd family, and provides a fresh and illuminating perspective to the times they lived in.
Four out of five smileys. 😀😀😀😀
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