Claire North
Hachette
Otago Daily Times, June 14th 2014
One of the difficulties facing any author, particularly of genre fiction, is how to find new ways of addressing old and familiar themes. Similarly, as a reader it is a pleasure to stumble across a novel that manages it. So The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by YA author Catherine Webb (writing under the pseudonym Claire North) came as an unexpected treat in much the same way The Time Traveller’s Wife did a decade ago.
Harry, the titular narrator of the story, is an ouroboran; an individual fated through some unknown quirk of genetics or quantum glitch to relive his life over and over again in an eternal loop, albeit it one in which he is reborn with a full memory of his past. With such foresight, Harry and others of his kind in the ideal position to change the future, but most are content to use this knowledge to ensure their financial security and their presence at – or absence from –significant events.
For a start, it is impossible to predict what the consequences of any major intervention will be (as Harry puts it “Complexity should be your excuse for inaction”). And to be honest, there is really little point. You can’t change your own past and, unless somebody from an earlier generation interferes, you are always going to start back in the same place every time you are reborn. But there is at least one recorded instance of an individual giving in to temptation, with disastrous results, and if the message Harry is given at the end of his 11th life is to be believed, it is happening again. According to the news passed back through the generations, the end of the world is coming, and it is happening earlier and earlier every cycle. Not only does Harry think he knows who is responsible, he may be the only person who can intervene. But how do you stop an adversary for who death is the ultimate escape route?
Although the underlying premise is not new (the main character of Kate Atkinson’s 2013 novel Life After Life undergoes similar cycles of death and rebirth although without the corresponding memory), such a narrative presents considerable challenges. Not only must the author avoid the usual time-travel paradox problems, readers must be able to follow the plot without too developing either a migraine or a case of terminal frustration. North strikes the balance well, and half of the fun of the novel comes from trying to figure out whether events are logically consistent (as far as I can tell they are).
Eequally interesting is her examination of the psychological ramifications of such an existence. Over the course of their first few reincarnations most ouroborans fall into insanity, then religion, as they struggle to understand who and what they are before choosing a specific trajectory for their subsequent lives. Some pursue hedonism, others scholarship or the pursuit of danger. And a few, seeking to recapture the innocence of living without the burden – and boredom – of memory, opt to undergo an electrical memory-wipe termed a Forgetting. There are also interesting parallels between these immortal few and other minority social groups both past and present.
With their closely guarded identities, the subtle cues that allow them to identify one another and the Chronos Clubs they establish to provide havens for socialisation and support, the ouroborans reminded me of pre-legalisation gay community, and I’m sure other readers will find other such resonances.
This is a novel that can be appreciated on many levels and I not only enjoyed it very much, I am going to reread it with pleasure to pick up the things I missed the first time through.
https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/unexpected-treat-gives-plenty-think-about
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