Reincarnation Blues: A Novel
By: Michael Poore / Narrated By: Mark Bramhall
Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
This is “light and uplifting”?! Good GOSH—Saved by the Ending!!!
I’m taking that quote from a blurb by New York Journal of Books: “light and uplifting”…! Cuz it staaaarts whimsically enough, but to clock in at 13 hours, author Michael Poore adds chapters/Lives From Holy Hell!!!
Milo is the sun-weathered sage who offers words of wisdom to all who would sail on his for-hire fishing vessel. Alas, after a long day whereby he shows a client a thing or two about choosing pain, he’s off the clock, swilling beer, banging a woman, then off to surf at night… and to get eaten by a shark.
Thus ends life 9,995. And it turns out? It wasn’t enough to earn him a place in the Cosmic Soul. And it turns out? He’s only 5 more lives to Get It Right, or he’ll be swallowed into Oblivion. And it turns out? He’s kinda sorta absolutely and totally in love with Suzie, who just happens to be a certain personification of Death. He’s not even suuuuure he WANTS to be part of the Cosmic Soul if he’ll be parted from Suzie (Who, through her love for Milo, just wants to settle down and own a nice little candle shop).
See? Charming premise, to be sure! And depending on just how well he gets near to Perfection is what kind of abode he’ll have as he waits for a new life to start. Poore treats us to silly little spaces, grand spaces, plus visits by the Universals, one of whom is a woman with maaaany cats. Sweet! Charming!
But when Milo starts getting to the nitty gritty of becoming a Perfect Being, ‘twould appear that suffering! Suffering! SUFFERING! is the only way to get there. Initially he’s shown a Perfect Life whereby the individual in question is a sacred cow in India who offers himself for slaughter to a family very near death from starvation. Milo is incensed! The odds are stacked against him! HiLARious!
-But WAIT-
Soon we get to Milo’s final lives where rape and violent sexual mistreatment and the eating of human flesh become part of his norm.
The nitty doesn’t get grittier than that… until it does.
Soon we get to Milo’s final life where submission to those in authority leads to slavery and to murder. And to storytelling. There’s a sliiiiiight “uplift” where Milo has an epiphany and dons paint to make himself “dead”, and he tells his people that they are already dead, so why don’t they act accordingly and make the brave and righteous stand?
Woven within and throughout this are Suzie’s personal journeys as she’s shriven her role as Death and herself has new obligations to meet. THAT’S all kinda sweet, but seriously? When we’re coming to Milo being handed off like so much chattel, only to be sexually brutalized? I was freaking traumatized cuz we’re sympathizing with Milo, right? Oy!
Add to that it’s the magNIFicent Mark Bramhall, he with the soft-spoken manner that is capable of packing a wallop, and I was totally identifying with this brutalized creature Milo lived to become. Don’t get me wrong; it’s all suPREMEly well-written, and it’s saying quite a bit that Poore can move a person to nausea, but “light” this was NOT! This was a pick for our little audiobook club, and we were all uniformly sickened, tho’ I’m probably the only one of us three who revels in that particular state.
Okay, so I reeeeeally had to let go of my disappointment that all that whimsy at the beginning? GONE! And what did that leave me with? Excellent writing, basically good (Tho’ somewhat disturbing) character development, and the Ending?
Ooooh, I really REALLY liked it, but in case you’re following and have agreed with her as she’s come up in reviews, my sister was fairly unmoved by the ending. I, however, found it to be unbearably poignant, and I canNOT, WILL NOT, be a spoiler and tell you even remotely what this ending meant to me, thereby pretty much leaving you hanging after my tirade. I can’t tell you what’s learned cuz that would entail giving you a hint whether union with the Cosmic Soul occurred, or if other choices were more palatable for Milo, for Suzie. I can’t tell you why you SHOULD be moved cuz, again, no way am I going to hint.
You’ve gotta listen to this yourself, and I found it worthwhile, esPECially for that ending.
It’s just…?
Do NOT expect “light”!!!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.