The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This superlative novel explores the meaning of time, friendship, and personal fate with the use of a marvelous premise. In an ingenuous variation on reincarnation, Harry is reborn in life after life as himself. The start of each of his lives is identical to the his first. Innocent of this fact as an infant, Harry grows into his realization year by year until, at the age of seven, he is fully aware of his prior lives. In his second life, he becomes mad and kills himself in despair. But as the cycle continues, he adjust more and more to his fate. He grows to understand how to use his knowledge from the previous life to allow him leisure to explore the possibilities in his life.

The premise is used to perfection by this mystery author who has used this pseudonym. The thought of encountering past failed loves and challenges to infinity is definitely daunting. Harry learns he is an Ouroboran, one of a community of people around the world born into this condition. Many belong to the Cronos Club who endeavor to save young members the tedium of having to live the hostage fate of adolescence without power to affect their own lives. In addition, the issue arises as to how much to effect their worlds. Here we encounter the problem of time travel, how much dare you change the world without fatal intrusion?

Much of this book concerns his efforts to enrich the fate he has been dealt. He is part of the minority who remembers everything. Knowing he will be reborn, he takes risks for knowledge, and well, for thrills. He learns fine arts, military process, the span of his years from different perspectives. He falls in love and is able to consider a future reenactment. The possibilities immediately enmesh the reader .

Another central premise is that of quantum theory. "Between us and the events unfolding of the future, there is an almost infinite range of possibilities and permutations." If each change causes a separate world with new outcomes to be created, why take action? This belief leads many of his peers to a sort of malaise. Harry has tried to stop a serial killer. He has pondered changing the events leading to war, but he is not convinced of the his efficacy or his wisdom. In his eleventh life, a voice conveyed through the ages comes to him that the world will end and it is he who must prevent it.

These string of events could easily become a muck of confusion with a less skilled writer. Claire North, however has written the deeply complex with clear narrative and literary references. The reader is always able to follow the paradoxes inherent in this book. I find the layers of meaning to be breathtaking in their revelations. Her prose is wry and lucid. It has provoked me in thought long after the last page, and that is my highest praise.
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