Book Review: Sum: Tales From The Afterlives

Book #73

“There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time.” — David Eagleman, Sum: Tales From The Afterlives

Sum was a lovely read. It was thought-provoking (man, I hate using that word in reviews… but it really is appropriate here) and ethereal. David Eagleman — who is by profession a neuroscientist — gives us forty different versions of what the afterlife could be like. Some are wildly imaginative, some are clearly inspired by fiction (Metamorphosis, Mary, Oz), some aren’t ludicrous, a couple are unworthy of being in a book with so much imagination and cleverness. Mostly, though, it is a great exploration and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Among my favourites were Sum, Circle of Friends, Mary and Metamorphosis, to name but a few. In Sum, Eagleman suggests that “you relive all your experiences, but this time with the events reshuffled into a new order: all the moments that share a quality are grouped together”. For instance, “You take all your pain at once, all twenty-seven intense hours of it. Bones break, cars crash, skin is cut, babies are born. Once you make it through, you are agony-free for the rest of your life”. It’s a fascinating idea — it’s the same with sex, and showering, and eating. You do all of it at once, and then you never do it again.

In Circle of Friends, the afterlife is made up purely of people you have met and remembered in your life. You cannot meet anyone else. And although you eventually feel lonely, “no one listens or sympathizes with you, because this is precisely what you chose when you were alive”. In Mary, “you arrive in the afterlife, you find Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley sits on a throne … After some questioning, you disocver that God’s favourite book is Shelley’s Frankenstein”.

Metamorphosis is the one with the above bolded quote is from. I found that fascinating. Until your name is spoken for the last time, you are in a no man’s land between this life and the afterlife. Some people get stuck there for eons, because people continue to mention their names.

Those are only some of the ones I enjoyed. There are plenty. It is a great little book, one which I would definitely recommend.