Rachel is a woman with a problem: she can't die. Her recent troubles-widowhood, a failing business, an unemployed middle-aged son-are only the latest in a litany spanning dozens of countries, scores of marriages, and hundreds of children. In the 2,000 years since she made a spiritual bargain to save the life of her first son back in Roman-occupied Jerusalem, she's tried everything to free herself, and only one other person in the world understands: a man she once loved passionately, who has been stalking her through the ...
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Rachel is a woman with a problem: she can't die. Her recent troubles-widowhood, a failing business, an unemployed middle-aged son-are only the latest in a litany spanning dozens of countries, scores of marriages, and hundreds of children. In the 2,000 years since she made a spiritual bargain to save the life of her first son back in Roman-occupied Jerusalem, she's tried everything to free herself, and only one other person in the world understands: a man she once loved passionately, who has been stalking her through the centuries, convinced they belong together forever. But as the twenty-first century begins and her children and grandchildren-consumed with immortality in their own ways, from the frontiers of digital currency to genetic engineering-develop new technologies that could change her fate and theirs, Rachel knows she must find a way out. Gripping, hilarious, and profoundly moving, Eternal Life celebrates the bonds between generations, the power of faith, the purpose of death, and the reasons for being alive.
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Sometimes reading one book leads directly to another. I had just read a book by a 20th century American philosopher, William E. Hocking, exploring issues surrounding the role of death in human experience and in understanding the meaning of life and the possibility of a form of survival after death. Upon finishing the book, I saw Dara Horn's new novel "Eternal Life" prominently displayed on the new books shelf of the local library. I thought it would make a fitting novelistic successor to the philosophy I had just read. I had read and enjoyed Horn's novel "The Guide for the Perplexed" but that alone would not have induced me to read her new book.
This book has religious, spiritual themes as befitting its title. The book explores universal themes about the meaning of life and death that are important but difficult to grasp. The book is also highly and specifically within the Jewish tradition.
The book ranges over a 2000 year time span and is a mix of religion, history, a satire of contemporary life, and utter fancy. The heroine of the book, Rachel, lived in Jerusalem at the time before the destruction of the Second Temple. When her son is dying, she makes a bargain with God through the high priest. The young son's life will be spared on condition that Rachel agrees to live forever, without death. Rachel's lover, the boy's likely father, Elazar makes a similar bargain. The two live through thousands of years, from place to place, with Elazar pursuing his flame. Both make many marriages over the century and have many children. Of course the deathless parents outlive and are in a sense detached from their offspring.
Much of the book is set in late 20t century America as Rachel owns a gem store. She has a son heavily involved a computer technology of the wackiest kind and a granddaughter who is a physician involved in research which, she thinks, may put a stop to or change the character of death. Rachel is weary and disenchanted with her long life of wandering and wants to die. And so the book includes many meditations on the importance of death as a part of life similar to the philosophy book I read.
The book also traces Rachel's (and Elazar's) lives over the centuries. It talks about the destruction of the Temple, the diaspora, the Crusades, the Holocaust and many other indignities inflicted on the Jewish people over the years. Rachel's young son whose life is spared, Yohan ben Zakkai was a great Talmudic scholar heavily involved in the Jews survival during the destruction of the Temple and, some say, the author of the mystical work, the Zohar. The book seems to be a parable of the survival of the Jewish people over the centuries as much or more than it is a meditation on death and its importance to life.
There are many allusions in the book, some obvious some less so. Rachel of course is a Biblical character, a matriarch, remembered for weeping over her children as Rachel does in this book. There are other stories about Jews living forever that seem to me to form a backdrop for this book. There is the Christian story of the Wandering Jew doomed due to his unbelief to live and wander until the Second Coming. I think Horn's book (she is a scholar of comparative literature) plays upon and answers this old legend.
I had mixed reactions to the book. The historical sections, particularly the discussion of the Second Temple Era is moving and convincing. Much of the 20th Century portion of the book is snappy, secular, and in a sense out of place with the seriousness of the theme. But then, the book is intended to show continuity and change over time. It still is disjointed.
On the whole, "Eternal Life" is a serious, thoughtful book that wrestles with issues of the nature of life that will interest readers regardless of their religious beliefs, and with issues of Jewish identity and Jewish survival. The book reads easily for all its seriousness of purpose. It is valuable to see modern popular novels that address spiritual questions of the human condition as well as particular issues of most concern to Jewish readers.
