Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

On Wednesday, July 8th, 2009, Lina Navarini and I attended a book review at Books & Books, Coral Gables, Florida. This book store chain has a calendar of events filled with exciting opportunities to get to know the authors of the books that will someday change our present day reality. We go early enough to acquire the book to be reviewed and to enjoy the culinary expertise of the resident staff; for they have healthy choices for a quick dinner and or dessert. Last night, we enjoyed a turkey Panini with melted cheese and cucumbers served with a salad of mixed baby greens tossed in balsamic vinaigrette. While we wait for the food, we read all about the author and a few chapters to get into the world offered by the author's experience and perspective. We were laughing because the author starts with a rather captivating chapter that provides a view to what the afterlife could be like, questioning the choices we make as we spend our time here on Earth. His words made us realize how we waste our time doing a litany of chores, exercises in futility and the like; and yet, the time spent in true enjoyment of our lives is reduced to a few hours or days, and for the lucky few perhaps a few months. We then walked over to the room prepared for the book review and sat first row. Slowly, the room filled to overflowing capacity in expectation of David Eagleman, who holds a PhD in Neuroscience, a field of study that delves into the most wonderful gift humans share, our brains. The minute he starts to talk, Mr. Eagleman delights the audience for he tells that "the book was difficult to publish because no one had seen one like it, but once it was released, the book seems to be having an effect on his life that goes beyond his wildest dream, that he just got back from Australia, where a song writer, inspired by his book, wrote music for many of SUM's chapters and they read the book to its music, something he expects to replicate while in England late November to early December 2009, updates to be provided through the author's web site[...] The author explains that his work provides thoughts to ponder on the perennial question of what happens after we die and a new way to think of death and the afterlife. Through vignettes that are brief and easy to read, the author probes into our greatest fears, purpose, loneliness and death. He does so with a twist for he presents his thoughts with humor and because we laugh, we engage in the meditation of our existence. David Eagleman proceeds to read several passages from the book and opens the floor to questions. The audience was engaged, sometimes puzzled, one asked him what his religious background was... "Jewish, but from an early age I began to question many aspects of life and realized that depending on where we come from, we have a different version of a beautiful story that organizes our society in a common faith, and that while these are wonderful, in order to defend our point of view, we fight and go to wa

We live in a universe that doesn't simply lay its mysteries at our feet. Mystics, philosophers, theologians, and scientists all, in their own way, posit theories, beliefs, and "knowledge," about the existence of God and an afterlife. This inherent confusion opens the door for further "what ifs" about who, what, where, and when runs our cosmos and what kind of "life" might follow physical mortality. Neuro-scientist David Eagleman has seen his opportunity to contribute to the melee. His Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives plunges right in, brashly inventing new benchmarks for Divine behavior and eternal life. This small book of only 110 pages brims over with ideas as each vignette envisions a different, often ironic and amusing, afterlife. For instance, there is "Distance" which allows "us" to ask God face to face why He lives in a palace far, far away instead of " 'in the trenches with us.' " God replies he used to live among us, but " '[o]ne morning I awoke to find people picketing in front of my driveway.' " And "Circle of Friends" tells of an afterlife in which each person exists on an earth peopled only by those he or she knew in life -- for most people about "0.00002 percent of the world's population. "The missing crowds make you lonely." Eagleman's biological expertise makes stories such as "Descent of Species" especially lucid and rich reading. The former asks what would happen to a weary sentient being -- say, you -- who decides to reincarnate as a lower species -- say a horse. What would happen to your capacity to make a higher choice during the next life/death cycle? After all: "The thickening and lengthening of your neck immediately feels normal as it comes about. Your carotid arteries grow in diameter, your fingers blend hoofward...and meanwhile, as your skull lengthens into its new shape, your brain races in its changes: your cortex retreats as your cerebellum grows, the homunculus melts man to horse, neurons redirect, synapses unplug and replug on their way to equestrian patterns, and your dream of understanding what it is like to be a horse gallops toward you from a distance. Your concern about human affairs begins to slip away...." One of the most intriguing tales is "Mary" in which Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein (Enriched Classics), sits on a throne in heaven because God so admires her book: "Like Victor Frankenstein, God....has much to say about bringing animation to the unanimated. Very few of His creatures had thought deeply about the challenges of creating, and it relieved Him a little of the loneliness of His position when Mary wrote her book." SUM is not a conventional religious book per se because it bursts out of established religious thought instead of reinforcing it. These tales conjure versions of the Supreme Being who have more in common with the foible Greek and Norse gods or us than with an image of an omniscient, omnipotent God. These imaginary Capital Beings cry, feel depressed and disappointed, a

SUM is both poignant and thought-provoking, while avoiding all the historical pitfalls of literature on the subject of death and the afterlife. Not preachy or pretentious, SUM is essentially a page-turner, but a page-turner that one revisits time and time again to savor a missed allusion or a significant observation. Each alternate explanation of the hereafter is a fresh look at life and the living, communicated through a unique voice. Some heart-wrenching, some playful- none trite and all witty. Eagleman truly has a special gift for boiling concepts and ideas down to their simplest form, and in SUM, he has written something that will speak to each and every one of us. It is a book that can not only entertain, but also spark new lines of thought and imagination. Upon mentioning the book to a new acquaintance, he replied that 3 of his friends had read it and were buying copies for all their friends- his own was sitting out in his car. And how often are people so moved to share a piece of literature that they buy copies for all their friends? I think this only speaks to SUMS' brilliance, creativity, and singularity.

Occasionally a book comes along of such originality that it stops you in your tracks, of such sharpness that it makes you think again about so many things and of such warmth that it makes you want to share it with everyone you meet. David Eagleman's Sum is just such a book. Ostensibly a book about what happens after we die, ironically Sum is really an examination of what it means to live. After all the divide is perhaps not as great as we think and as John Keats once wrote, "Life is but a Waking Dream." In the course of these 40 imaginings of the afterlife, Eagleman takes you on a long and varied emotional journey. Some of the Sums are absurd and surreal, others are poigant and poetic, others are funny and wild, some are neurologically cutting edge while others are dreamily abstract. It's an astonishing feat of the mind and to top it all, they are all written is this clear and limpid prose that is a joy and completely effortless to read. I have a feeling that this book is going to become one of these word of mouth sleeper hits. There are at least 20 people I plan to give it to straight away and everyone I have read snippets of it to has immediately responded to its humanity and humour. I'm sure that at least one or two of reviewers of this book will be tempted to write, "Greater than the Sum of its parts", because that is exactly what it is. Enjoy and dream and smile and weep.

Sum is brilliant, and I think it's destined to go down as one of the greatest works of all time. The more I read it, the more I enjoy it, like listening to my favorite song over and over again. And, I think that makes sense, because the book is about the essence of living, using these stories to explore the preciousness of life and the nuanced relationship between ourselves, our dreams, and our mortality. As a literary work, it's brilliant. The language is captivating, and densely packed with gems that offer you beautiful, new ways of looking at the world. As a philosophical work, it's revolutionary. Each chapter presents a novel way of looking at some of the oldest, deepest questions in philosophy. And, as a work of fiction, it's addictive. Reading Sum for the first time is like being introduced to an amazing, gourmet food that you've never tasted before, and each time I re-read a chapter, I feel like I'm savoring the food again.