But my take is that there is greater depth to their connection.) despite the fact that Thora is bisexual and has major hots for a woman, Jules, in many of the stories. 50 First Dates anyone? There is a clear romantic element in this one, too, as Thora and Santi are souls who are clearly meant to be together, (Yeah, I know, some might see them as merely tethered. Groundhog Day is the most famous cinematic rom-com loop and Andy Samberg’s Palm Springs gave it a similar go in 2020. Cloud Atlas is another novel offering common characters in diverse times (and places. Thora, in particular, and Santi try this out, but it is not enough to solve the puzzle. Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life (when Thora refers to herself as the Fox to Santi’s Wolf, is that a nod to that book?) uses the method in consideration of England in the first half or the 20th Century, and looking at the possible branches life might take were one to choose A instead of B, or B instead of C, giving the available choices a go until a desirable path forward is found. There are obvious similarities to other works that deal in re-iteration. …the question was: can two people ever know each other completely? That led me to the idea of characters who meet again and again in different versions of their lives…I think of the book as an argument: Thora and Santi have very different attitudes to their situation, and that leads them to respond to it in different ways. But these are two characters who are reaching for the stars, and Silvey’s solution was very fantasy/sci-fi-ish. The notion that sparked the book is very down to earth. Once Santi and Thora realize they are trapped in a loop, they (along with the reader) must piece together the clues scattered through the narrative to figure out what might really be going on. Recurring elements (Santi’s cat, a tattoo on Thora’s wrist) first gain meaning through repetition, and then become touchstones, triggering inferences for the reader about how the characters have changed and where they might be headed. Also, there are some consistencies, some places and characters that recur, unchanged. They begin to realize that they have known each other and remember things from their former lives. Why the recurring lives? Why the disparate ages, roles, and relationships? After a time, it becomes clear to Thora and Santi, too. It is clear to us early on that there is a mystery to be solved. But their passion for learning, for exploration, for science binds them together. They have varying personal relationships, with each other (bf/gf, married, prospects), or he with Heloise, she with Jules. Their positions of authority vary as well, parent/child, teacher/student, cop/trainee, patient/caretaker, if there is any such hierarchical relationship between them. In some, one or the other is older, a little, more than a little, or maybe a lot. It takes only a short time to know that these two have a special bond, one that will persist through life after life, as one or the other is gone by the end of each of the eighteen chapters, to be reunited in the next. Until, oopsy, soon after they meet, tragedy. (neither is a native) They meet cute, at first, anyway. Thora and Santi (Santiago) find themselves in Cologne. That is what reading Meet Me in Another Life is like. Another scene on the big screen, with more blip, until the characters in the front film, look at each other and say, “did you see that?” As they slowly become more and more aware that there is something going on in the film behind them, they turn and watch, and their behavior in the front film changes, to take account of the new knowledge.Ĭatriona Silvey – image from Harper Voyager – photo credit – Hazel Lee As the film moves on to the next scene, there are more blips, holes in the image, with another image, another, pentimento film, going on behind the up-front film. There are blips in the image, fleeting, but present. Imagine you are looking at the screen in a large cinema. But Thora has to admit that’s exactly how this feels: a moment taken out of time, with no beginning or end. ‘I guess it has.’ He smiles at her sideways in the flickering light. Santi tries to push the gear in the other direction. Thora puts her weight to one of the gears and tries to shove it backwards. Santi steps closer as she holds the light up to the gears.
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