A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife

Rating:
Summary: Caution: Fantastic, comic fiction!
Review: Did you know that in the afterlife a wind storm can leave your brain in such a shamble that you believe yourself a bicycle? That Borges completes after his death his Biography of the Infinite? That afterlife physicists Rotnac and Rekcur believe the other side is an anti-universe composed in part of charmed anti-quarks? Neither did I, but that's what I learned in this decidedly nutty, bizarre, fantastic, comic fiction. Quinn and Whalen have constructed the craziest, cleverest book I've read since, say, Queneau's Exercises in Style or O'Brien's wacky afterlife novel The Third Policeman. The authors perform their magic with a straight face, but don't be deceived--this is anything but a straight book.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Having read Ishmael, The Story of B, and After Dachau, I thought I knew what I was getting into with this book. I should have done my research. Perhaps if Daniel Quinn had provided a more accurate introduction (or not written one at all) I would have been able to take something from this book. As it is, I spent a too much time distracted by the thought that maybe, just maybe, he meant what he said and this was the result of a dream coupled with the extreme coincidence of his collaboration with Tom Whalen. My time would have been better served reading this book the way I know I would have had I not read his intro -- ignoring the vivid but useless description of the "physical" characteristics of this invented afterlife, and focusing on the message. Even with that in mind, I think Quinn has missed his mark here. There's certainly a good dose of creativity and some humor, and it paints a fascinating picture, but in the end I feel like I wasted my time. I can certainly think of better ways to impart dribbles of philosophy -- perhaps if he had spent less time describing the fantasy and more time actually trying to make a point, it would have been worthwhile. As it is, the "message" could easily be distilled into a single page, and we would all be much better for it.

Rating:
Summary: Charm, beauty, and wonder are abundant within.
Review: I am more familiar with the works of Tom Whalen than Daniel Quinn, and I find in this beautifully designed book much evidence that Tom's vision prevailed or at least persisted. Not one to follow a straight line when a crooked one ambles into delightful junctures, Tom explores whimsically our perplexedness in the face and certainty of the beyond. After we shuffle off this mortal coil, what happens to our spirits? And so Quinn and Whalen imagine a book that provides such answers. All in all, it is a brief work, perhaps owing some of its approach to similar guides to one's finances or health. But such guides are never as elegant as the "Little Book," to say the least. Finally, I will observe that this work, while offbeat, somehow manages in its humor to possess an elegiac quality. Thus the reader is not meant to read the book through like a novel, but to leaf through it slowly, pretending along with its authors that these slightly or extremely odd answers make sense. Why not these as much as some others we have already been told? Knowledge as charm or the charm of knowledge. Clutch this little book close. While the meaning of life may be elusive and the meaning of death equally inexact, what to do while "engaged" by it is another matter!

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Summary: Seriously Its not meant to be taken Seriously very Seriously
Review: I don't understand some the below reviewers atitudes about this book. Yes, parts of book don't make a lot of sense, but I see that as the authors attempt to get us to look at our belief systems, when glanced at in the same way- are'nt they just as absurd? I think some people including me, came on this book thinking it was going to be another Ishamael- "a book to change the world and give people answers." Rather, it is a book to change your thinking. One thing I got from it was this- the answers to the questions you have gotten in this life, are, like the answers you get in this book, subjective because no one really knows! There are gems of wisdom to be gained from reading this book, I could go on...

Rating:
Summary: read it with an open mind,don't forget knowlege is power
Review: I found this book in the middle of other very large beautiful books. I picked it up, read the title and laughed. However I couldn't let my judgmental opinions get in the way of seeing ALL SIDES. If you are very much into paraphsycology, you will understand this book from page one to the ending, however if you are not a very spiritual person, take it with a grain of salt. Use it for you own knowlege, in other words use it as "JUST IN CASE"

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I LOVED this book. The introduction is the best part. It makes the rest of the book so much more fascinating.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I LOVED this book. The introduction is the best part. It makes the rest of the book so much more fascinating.

Rating:
Summary: This must be a spoof
Review: If any of this book is true, you will do everything to prolong your life. What this book describes can only be one person's version of Hell.

Rating:
Summary: Save your money.
Review: Quinn's most disappointing novel. While it is written in an entertaining style, reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut's, it offers few of the profound insights of ISHMAEL and its sequel. I searched for some light, and occasionally found glimmers. Darkness and cynicism are not this author's strong suit.

Rating:
Summary: Read book description above. It's the best of the book
Review: Reading the back cover of the book, text that is given in the editorial reviews section above, you are reading the most clever, the funniest part of the book. The next best is the Introduction - coincidences, human interaction, human fraility. No need to read beyond that. The book is clever, making marvelous connections to real historical people. Unfortunately, the cleverness is useless when the clever premise and/or connection degrades into drivel ... often close but never successful, funny or perceptive. There's too much good and excellent literature to waste your time on this. Even if you wish to mindlessly kill time, you can easily find better mindless reading.