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Eternal Life A Novel Dara Horn Books

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Eternal Life A Novel Dara Horn Books

I think it would help the reader of Dara Horm's "Eternal Life" is they were both a biblical scholar and a lover of Magical Realism as a writing style. Horn's book basically covers over two thousand years in the life of Rachel, who simply, cannot die. She can be burned to cinders - and was many times - and she will return to life as an 18 year old, ready to begin yet another life as a wife and mother. She thinks she has had seventy or so life times and by 2017, simply wants to die - permanently.

How was Rachel blessed with eternal life? It seems that around the BC/AD changeover, Rachel made a pact with a Jewish priest that in order to save the life of her infant son, she would have to live life over and over again. Truthfully, I'm a little sketchy on what happened to make her eternal; one of problems with Magical Realism is the author can sort of fudge on rationality. But, her young son lived and Rachel went from lifetime to lifetime, country to country, marrying and outliving even her great, great, great (etc) grandchildren. She was joined in eternity by Elazar, her lover from her first life who appeared time and again to complicate her life (lives).

I'm still a bit undecided about how to rate "Eternal Life". For the right reader, it's five star, but for the wrong one, it's 3 star at best. I'm giving it a four star rating because, while I probably am not the "right" reader (and god only knows who is, other than who I've written about in the first sentence), I appreciated the craft and knowledge Dara Horn showed in writing "Eternal Life".


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Eternal Life A Novel Dara Horn Books Reviews

During the final years that Beit haMikdash stood in Jerusalem, Rachel and Elazar sacrificed their mortality and exchanged their hope for relief from the travails of living in return for the survival of their son. They have now endured eternal life separately and together, arriving at last in contemporary New York CIty. They are Talmudic characters living in an era of genetic engineering and cryptocurrency. Every experience of Jews in the intervening millenia is the experience of Elazar and Rachel; they are the Forrest Gump and Jennie of the Galut. The book is a meditation on the mortal experience, but more, it is the story of an entire people written in just two lives. Our book club, the Etz Chayim Bookworms, asked why did Dara Horn choose the fall of the Temple as the starting point for their Eternal Life? We decided that the end of the Temple period and the start of the Rabbinic period was a complete break in history. Our religion as practiced in synagogues is entirely different from the sacrificial cult that preceded it. Our people's story really begins with Johanan ben Zakai's escape from Jerusalem in a coffin and his subsequent meeting with Emperor Vespasian. We asked what does Dara Horn say in this book about the future of the Jewish people? We decided that Dara Horn says that we will live eternally, but that to maintain our collective immortality, periodically we will have to burn.
Eternal Life by Dara Horn

Rachel is an 18 y/o woman, daughter of Azaria, a Jewish scribe in Jerusalem just before the birth of Christ. She falls in love with Elazar, son of Hanania, the High Priest of the Jewish Temple. Unfortunately, she gets pregnant from this affair and has to marry Zakkai, the 8th child of an olive farmer from Tekoa. Zakkai had come as a slave apprentice to Azaria. Her child, Yochanan, gets very ill and was going to die until Rachel does a vow to the High Priest -- immortality for the life of her son. Elazar does the same.

For the next two thousand years, they marry, have children, grow old and disappear, just to start again. As they burn in fire, they are reborn in another place with the bodies they had when they made their vows.

The story is narrated from the third person point of view. The book jumps back and forth in time, and it's just too disorganized. The characters are not developed enough. Any wisdom on life it is trying to impart was lost on me. I did read every page, in the hope that I would eventually get something good out of it. The only nice thing I can say is that it is easy to read.

I would summarize my review by saying great concept but poorly developed.
I think it would help the reader of Dara Horm's "Eternal Life" is they were both a biblical scholar and a lover of Magical Realism as a writing style. Horn's book basically covers over two thousand years in the life of Rachel, who simply, cannot die. She can be burned to cinders - and was many times - and she will return to life as an 18 year old, ready to begin yet another life as a wife and mother. She thinks she has had seventy or so life times and by 2017, simply wants to die - permanently.

How was Rachel blessed with eternal life? It seems that around the BC/AD changeover, Rachel made a pact with a Jewish priest that in order to save the life of her infant son, she would have to live life over and over again. Truthfully, I'm a little sketchy on what happened to make her eternal; one of problems with Magical Realism is the author can sort of fudge on rationality. But, her young son lived and Rachel went from lifetime to lifetime, country to country, marrying and outliving even her great, great, great (etc) grandchildren. She was joined in eternity by Elazar, her lover from her first life who appeared time and again to complicate her life (lives).

I'm still a bit undecided about how to rate "Eternal Life". For the right reader, it's five star, but for the wrong one, it's 3 star at best. I'm giving it a four star rating because, while I probably am not the "right" reader (and god only knows who is, other than who I've written about in the first sentence), I appreciated the craft and knowledge Dara Horn showed in writing "Eternal Life".