Review

Review The Idiot Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives By David Eagleman by Elif Batuman Canongate Books

Vintage “By the way, I have been wondering

Harvard graduate and what the special place in Hell looks journalist at the New Yorker like, for those who promoted Brexit,

Elif Batuman provides here a without even a sketch of a plan of how witty and self-reflective novel. to carry it out safely.”

The Idiot is set in 1995 and follows Selin, a young female Donald Tusk, President, European Council, 6 February 2019

Harvard student perplexed by Do you, like Donald Tusk, ever think of the bigger questions of the idea of an e-mail address but who finds herself life: the origin of evil; the nature of God; is there an afterlife? I falling in love with Ivan, a fellow student with whom often think my good deeds (being so few!) will torment me in she enters into an electronic back and forth. The title the afterlife. I see myself banished, eternally toiling in an overis a nod to Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name and, heated windowless basement below the glorious mansion with much like that novel, the story itself is shrouded in many rooms which has been prepared for us. You, undoubtedly, elements of Russian literature as we see Ivan and Selin having lived a life filled with good deeds, will be recognised, feted, step into the roles of the characters they are reading in and then escorted through the mansion to a well-deserved their Russian language class. penthouse suite. Whether your afterlife expectation is fiery flames

While language is Selin’s passion it also acts as in a crowded basement or a penthouse suite this slim volume will a barrier. Ivan, too afraid to give life to the textual today bring you enjoyment and cause for reflection. relationship they have, rejects her whenever she begins I was reading these accounts of possible afterlives when Donald to step out of the character of a novel, to move off the Tusk – very appropriately as a European leader reflecting on that page of an email and into her own skin. Selin, on the great European literary work Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ – made the recommendation of Ivan, signs up to teach English in above controversial observations on Brexit promoters and the a Hungarian village where she’s introduced to different afterlife. Just as all of us are today astonished at the here and now families, all the while occupied by thoughts of her afterlife of our 2016 Brexit decision, the same Donald Tusk on this e-romance. Selin waiting for a call on the local landline side of the pearly gates might be surprised at the post-death lives creates a once familiar tension as Batuman throws us as here revealed by neuroscientist and journalist David Eagleman. back to a time where we can all remember waiting for a It is a little volume of 110 pages – thought provoking in a phone call that may never come. restrained fashion, highly inventive, original and gently humorous.

The Idiot is a perfect balance of contemporary prose It comprises forty self-contained simple to read essays each of only peppered with Russian narrative conventions. We can a few pages but all from an outrageously off-beat perspective. Each see the personal connection to Selin that Batuman will cause you to sit up, smile and think. Some examples from a has, bringing her experience as a Harvard graduate few of the essays: into play to make Selin so well-rounded and fleshed “In the afterlife you relive all your experiences, but this time out. The infiltration of different characters mimics the with the events reshuffled into a new order: all the moments that classic narratives of the Russian novel – but in a much share a quality are grouped together …. Six days clipping your nails. less confusing way! Batuman’s love of language comes Fifteen months looking for lost items. Eighteen months waiting in across on every page. She avoids the trap concerning line.” (Sum p3)

Selin and her problems – which are wholly relatable and “What we call God is actually a married couple … They separated therefore completely cringe worthy – but emphasises (and then got back together).” (Missing pp26-27) the heartfelt terror, longing and confusion of a time in a “In the afterlife you discover that your Creator is a species of small, person’s life that can be so easily dismissed as ‘just being dim-witted, obtuse creatures.” (Spirals p29) young’. “So when you arrive here, you are split into your multiple selves

A worthy finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in at all possible ages. That you that existed as a single identity is

Literature, The Idiot is a clever and relatable read with now all ages at once. These pieces of you no longer get older but hilarity tossed in for good measure. Lovers of Russian remain ageless into perpetuity. The yous have transcended time.” literature will appreciate the form the story takes, (Prism p72) but you don’t have to be ‘down with Dostoyevsky’ to “After a store closes its doors on its final evening, or a congress become engrossed in the world Batuman has created wraps its final session, the participants amble away, feeling that for us to enjoy. they were part of something larger than themselves, something they

April McIntyre intuit had a life even though they can’t quite put a finger on it. In

continued on page 47

The sticky, black mud lay all around, Rain making it worse as the soldiers found As they struggled and squelched all through the day Making everyone wish they were far, far away. The rain didn’t drown out the sound of the shots, Bullets flew through the air, finding their spots. It didn’t drown out the sounds of the screams, As my friends lay there dying, ending their dreams. It didn’t drown out the thoughts in my head Of the families back home, their children now dead. But it did drown out the light in my eyes, Regretting I’ll never say my final goodbyes. George Stanway aged14 years

this way, death is not only for humans but for everything that existed. And it turns out that anything which enjoys life enjoys an afterlife.” (Ineffable p75)

“There is not a single God but many. Each rules a separate territory …. One God has control over objects that are made of chrome. Another over flags. Another over bacteria …” (Pantheon p77)

“Here in the afterlife, everything exists in all possible states at once, even states that are mutually exclusive. This comes as a shock after your Earthly life…” (Quantum p82)

“In the afterlife you are judged not against other people, but against yourself. Specifically, you are judged against what you could have been. So the afterlife is much like the present world, but it now includes all the yous that could have been.” (Subjunctive p104)

I ended this volume with a rueful smile thinking: “Just like our Brexit afterlife – who would have thought it?”

Readers with an interest in visual art matters, particularly as it pertains to graphic art and design in the area of book jackets, will be interested in this little volume’s remarkable jacket cover and how it complements the unique, quirky and slightly surreal nature of the writing and subject matter. The front cover shows fantastic use of shades of dark colour - black shading up the cover to a light whitish grey at the top. The top right quarter reveals a door slightly ajar (to the afterlife) and does so using a very discreet and almost invisible cut in the cardboard cover. Above this obscured almost implied slightly open door – rather playfully – is a small EXIT sign, rectangular and in a starkly different colour as such warning signs usually are to grab attention, namely, a bright green and white background with a man figure running and a broad arrow pointing downwards to the door slightly ajar. Ingenious! We are all of us going in the same direction – unpalatable as that undoubtedly is to some amongst us. Hugh Pollock