The late medical student-turned-author Michael Crichton captured the attention of millions with blockbuster novels and movie adaptations that fused science and science fiction to raise some jarring, yet thought provoking issues. Now comes David Eagleman, a young neuroscientist, to do the same, but in a more spiritually lofty and truly innovative way.
It would be easy to describe "Sum" as a breezy work, as it is comprised of 40 two-to-three page flights of fancy on what we might expect in the Afterlife. This slim volume can be read hurriedly, with a minimum of effort and several chuckles or knowing smiles, then placed on the bookshelf. To do so would be an injustice to Eagleman's superior imagination and to the underlying questions that he poses for us.
By examining what a Higher Power may have waiting for us, "Sum" does much more than amuse and entertain. By having us ponder the fate that may await us, we are given the opportunity to take just a moment or two to consider what we have done with our lives and what we can yet do with them. That point is immediately driven home in the first of Eagleman's 40 tales, in which the Afterlife consists of 18 days staring into the refrigerator, 51 days deciding what to wear, three months doing laundry - and 14 minutes experiencing pure joy.
If God is within us physically, the author asks, is he also in us spiritually? If we evolve and mature in our lives, what is the progression? Would we really, truly like to understand our stages of growth, or would we be repelled? Would we genuinely want to know what others thought of us on earth, or would we be content with the surface flattery and half-truths that pass so many times for constructive criticism or helpful friendship? If we want to leave a positive legacy on earth after we pass, does it matter what form that might take? Would we be happy struggling and growing as we did in human form, but doing so by literally becoming part of the earth? Would our threshold for boredom be pushed to the limit if we had the opportunity to be surrounded by a tried-and-true circle of friends and loved ones? Or might we find that confining, longing for the additional relationships that we never took the time to cultivate in our waking lives, terra firma?
"Sum" asks these and many other questions in sublime fashion, offering spiritual warmth, humor and an enveloping sense of Possibility to those willing to be just a little less doctrinaire and a bit more curious. Ending with a Benjamin Button-like moment, it challenges us to awaken from whatever inertia, ennui or pettiness we may fall prey to and embrace new ways of living. There must be at least 40 of them. If we are open to the possibilities of the Afterlife, can we not also be open to the possibilities of living?
"Sum" just may go down as the 21st Century's answer to Dante's centuries-old imaginings. I'm guessing David Eagleman's got a lot more locked inside him, just waiting to burst forth.
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Reviews with images
Mind. Blown.
Existential. Probing. Provocative.🧐To be human is to consider where we come from, where we’re headed, and how God comes into play (or doesn’t).🧐Writer Eagleman’s resume is impressive: neuroscientist, Guggenheim Fellow, author/presenter of the PBS series THE BRAIN, he adds New York Times bestselling author to his long list of accomplishments with the 2009 publication of Sum.🧐Forty tales from the afterlives doesn’t seem to cover this skinny book with big ideas. If push came to shove, I’d describe this gem as equal parts imaginative and heretical. Fascinating. Mind bending.🧐Recommended to me by an eleven year old former student, I’ll just let you sit with that for a minute.🧐My favorite? The last tale called Reversal.
Top reviews from other countries
Amanda Thomas
Book about the afterlife
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2024just me
sehr schöne Geschichten mit Humor und Tiefgang
Reviewed in Germany on November 1, 2023
Qiun Hna Lin
Questa citazione era stata la ragione del mio acquisto, non ho bisogno di altre parole.
Reviewed in Italy on October 1, 2023