Reincarnation Blues

Not only is this novel about death and dying (10,000 times, to be exact), but it also features Death as a main character. So it gets bonus points for hitting both of those marks when it comes to my love of dark comedies about death. But it’s also a story about finding a reason for living, that reason being the aforementioned Death, who just so happens to be the main character’s love interest. It’s complicated. At turns both thought-provoking and laugh-out-loud funny. Reincarnation stories have always intrigued me and this one does it in a fashion unlike any other.

Just when I thought I'd heard every take on spiritual and physical rebirth -- I stumbled upon Reincarnation Blues. On its surface, it's the story of a man who is reincarnated over 10,000 lifetimes to be with his one true love, but that doesn't do it justice. The narrator describes a world too weird to be true but speaks with such off-handed authority I found it hard not to believe him:  "Died, in a future life, in a starship crash at the speed of light, in a moment that resonated forever inside the envelope of time." Poetical, adventurous, full… show more.