The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Review

This week I read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I saved it into the "keepers" folder on my Kindle.

Harry August was born on New Year's Day 1919, lived an undistinguished life, died in 1989, and then was born New Year's Day 1919 to live his life over again with all his knowledge from his previous life in tact.  And again.  And again.  After a round of madness and denial, then a search for understanding about what's happening to him, he uses his resources to branch out.  He gets scholarships to universities, gets money from a combination of the stock market and gambling, and avoids armed conflict in World War II.  He a doctor, a physicist, a reporter, a spy.  He searches for God in all the religions of the world.  He travels.  He does drugs.  He learns dozens of languages.  He meets other people like himself, most of whom are part of the Cronus Club.  By communicating with other club members, they can send messages forward and backwards through time.  In his eleventh life, he gets a message from the future.  "The world is ending, as it always must.  But the end of the world is getting faster."

There are interesting philosophical discussions about using time travel to change history as opposed to the idea that "complexity is an excuse for inaction." There are discussions of the morality of scientific advancement and what achieving greatness is worth when the costs are measured in lives.  There's a lot said about boredom when you don't extend yourself and live in luxury, knowing what will happen and watching it without taking part.

But beyond these deeper issues, at its heart, this is a more personal story about friends who love each other and betray each other.  It turns into Spy vs. Spy as Harry tries to find his once friend Vincent, ingratiate himself with him, prove he's loyal and harmless, then stop Vincent from destroying the world once and for all.

The time travel stays interesting given there is a whole cast of characters time traveling and given the knowledge they can take back with them.  The mechanisms of sending messages across time was really novel here, and the way the Cronus Club and its members were affected and not affected by the world changing around them was interesting to see.  But the thing I liked most about this was the way Harry dealt with his life and how he used his knowledge to achieve his goals in different ways with each lifetime.  He was clever and proactive while also a bit mellowed, and his characterization and reactions felt organic given what he'd experienced.

What really clenched it for me was the moment when Harry was saved from a man torturing him for knowledge about the future by a member of the Cronus Club.  She interrupts the torture, sits down across from him, and says, 

"Now, when it's all over you will be wanting post-traumatic stress counseling, although I understand how difficult these things are to come by.  You look...fifty, maybe?  Which means you must have been born in the twenties--ghastly, so many Freudians in the twenties, so much wanting to sleep with your mother.  There's this wonderful little chap in Finchley though, very good, very understanding, no rubbish about cigars.  Failing that, I always find local priests are handy, as long as you go to them in the form of confessional.  Scares the buggery out of them sometimes too!  Now absolutely don't, don't."  She stabbed the table with her index finger, the little joint at the end bending backwards with the force of her determination.  "Don't tell yourself that just because you've been around a bit you're not in a terrible state.  You are absolutely in a terrible state, Harry dear, and the silent, noble number won't get you anywhere."

She tells him to get therapy!  Fantastic!  That is exactly what he needs to do.  I love this kind of pragmatism in a story, and I love the way mental health is treated here, like it's a given that it's important.

***

Next week: The Martian by Andy Weir