Leaving This Life Behind

Leaving This Life Behind is a timely reminder that good literature still exists today in a market dominated by mediocre genre writers. As Levine weaves his way back and forth between the "lives" of his two compelling main characters, one garners an entirely new outlook on the world and whatever comes after it. An excellent read, full of masterful imagery and anchored by a breathtaking plot that will leave you feverishly turning pages until the stunning conclusion.

I like the way this book treats life and death as part of the same continuum, weaving them both in and out of an interesting plot. I enjoyed this book emensly.

Leaving This Life Behind is an exceptionally engaging novel. The style is highly accessible and flows smoothly, but it also contains a lot of interesting images and insights into human character. The author has no trouble making transitions between two substantially different narrators, and between the gritty realism of contemporary New York and a variety of other settings - including the mystical and the historical - which are rendered with moving detail and remarkable credibility. (A typical example of its talent for description occurs when the cab driver narrator describes being hailed this way: "At the intersection of 14th and 3rd, I'm hailed by a heavyset woman who flags me as if she were hand guiding a cargo plane down onto a runway.") The book also contains a view on life which, though it may not be fashionable in its lack of materialism, is striking for its originality and intensity. I highly recommend this book. Anyone who reads it will encounter insights that are unusual and memorable.

It's a deceptive book -- as easy as it is to read, the ideas and concepts stay with you for a long time. It's not preachy or insistant that there is only one answer to the universe, but rather just uses the topic of reincarnation to open up your thinking to the meaning of life on earth ... and life after earth.

I found Leaving This Life Behind to be a unique and fascinating novel, a page-turner which is thought-provoking, even inspirational. The plot is full of surprises--which I wouldn't want to reveal--but perhaps what is most surprising is that half of the novel is set in the hereafter. The novel is narrated, in alternating chapters, by Sharon Galdoni and her husband Paul. Sharon dies in a car crash in the first chapter--surprise number one, revealed--and for the rest of the novel narrates from the beyond. The depiction of the hereafter is very believable and convincing. Particularly fascinating are Sharon's past lives, portions of which she relives. Among other benefits, this helps her to understand the karmic reasons for her painful separation from her young son Kenny. Raising Kenny is now the sole responsibility of Paul, a New York City cabdriver who drinks heavily and has never been particularly tolerant of Kenny's developmental delays. Paul's struggles to become a better parent are gripping and very realistically portrayed. So are his difficulties in dealing with Sharon's mother and sister, both of whom are determined to play a part in Kenny's life. Paul is a gritty and at times outrageous character, and at bottom a better person than he'd care to admit. The two setttings--the hereafter and suburban and metropolitan New York--are brought together in an ending which is a fitting climax to this wonderful and well-written novel. I recommend it highly--to anyone who has ever pondered the meaning of life, and death--or to anyone who is in the market for a good read.