I find the difference in the way people interpret unexplained time travel in the books we read very interesting. For example, during Kindred I found myself frustrated over the fact that there wasn’t any explanation as to why or how she was going into the past. I didn’t enjoy the book as much, because I couldn’t believe that it was going on. I was always waiting for a reason and when the book ended, I was disappointed. None of the characters knew what was going on either. They tried to explain it away as it was Dana’s duty to save her ancestor, but even then there was no how. The same thing should have happened for Life after Life, but it didn’t.

Like in Kindred, during Life after Life there was no explanation as to why Ursula was reliving her life over and over again. This didn’t bother me. It felt natural, or at least as natural as a sci-fi book could be. As in Kindred people tried to explain why. Bridget called it a six-sense, her therapist brought up Buddhism and reincarnation. Neither of these really explain how or why this was happening to her. I felt that Kindred owned me an explanation that wasn’t needed for Life after Life.

The books have many similarities. While the plots and characters are different, some of the same structures and themes are the same. Neither book was set in a different world or used some crazy gadgets. If I had to give the books genres I would say that they are both Historical Fantastical Realism. They both lean more towards the magical realism side of the spectrum than Sci-fi in my opinion. It’s not like they have some advancement in technology that causes society to change. It’s all fantasy, magic, and some mythical unexplained reason. Both books establish their world by having the first chapter or prologue jump right into the middle of the action and then go back to the beginning in the next chapter. Throughout the book, they went back and forth through time and had ‘neutral points’. In Kindred her neutral point would be in her time. It’s like the normal part of her in the story. During Life after Life this was scene whenever she was reborn.

I’m not sure exactly why I was okay with one and not the other. Perhaps it was because Ursula had this power since she was born and Dana somehow acquired it. Maybe it was the difference between changing the past and reliving the present. It could be that Dana seemed to have a true goal while Ursula didn’t. Whatever the reason, it made me realize that the way I think of time travel in books changes, even if the situations are similar.