Life After Life Characters

Sister, SisterAlthough Ursula's life differs wildly from one incarnation to the next, her older sister, Pamela, stays pretty consistent. Pammy is the thoughtful one from the get-go. Sylvie, her mot...

Isobel Ringing Isobel is Ursula's aunt. She is a few years younger than her brother, Hugh (who's Ursula's father), and one of the first major events of the book is when Izzie has a baby at sixteen....

Mixed MoralsUrsula's mother, Sylvie, is traditional to a fault. She hates Izzie (often fantasizing about her getting kidnapped by "white slave traders" (4.66)) because Izzie is what Sylvie believes...

Hugh, GrantedHugh is Sylvie's husband and Ursula and her siblings' father. He's a hard-working husband, he loves his children, and they're all sad when he dies. Maybe because he's the least dramati...

Snips, Snails, Puppy Dog TailsMaurice is your stereotypical annoying older brother. One of the first things he does is poke baby Ursula in the face, and later we see him smash birds' eggs, shoot a...

Don't Wanna Be a Tiger, Don't Wanna Be a Lion Ursula and Teddy are the two bears of the Todd family (remember: Ursula's name means "little she-bear"(4.50)), and the two siblings are kindred sp...

Jimmy T Jimmy is the youngest Todd, and the one we know the least about. His only defining moment occurs when he joins the war because he wants to be a writer, and "what better than a war to r...

Maid to OrderThe Todds' young housemaid, Bridget, is fourteen in 1910, when Ursula is born. It's easy to forget that, since she has so many responsibilities. Sylvie often treats Bridget as though s...

Mrs. Glover is the domineering cook of the Todd household. She's a powerful figure early on, because she's not a lady to let herself be ordered around, even though she's technically a servant: "In...

Not Proud to Be an American…The American rapist who admires Hitler, Howie kisses Ursula forcefully in the woods on her sixteenth birthday, something that Ursula initially considers an accomplishm...

Yes, That Hitler Yep, Hitler is a character in this book. He's surprisingly non-threatening, being characterized as "not a manly man" (1.3) who "loved his cakes" (1.3), and we might as well ca...

Kindling FireUrsula knows Fred Smith from the time she is eight and he is the fourteen-year-old boy who runs errands for the butcher. Their paths cross often as kids and teens, but never completely...

People of the World Spice Up Our Lives There are a few flat and static characters Ursula meets, just like we all do in our lives—people whose names we know, along with one or two things abou...