Perhaps Elsewhere is more quirky than here.

I completed recommendation #2 from the NOPL-North Syracuse Children's librarian. This time it was a book called ELSEWHERE by Gabrielle Zevin. As I read the book, I kept thinking it was terrible, but there was something that kept me going with it, and last night I completed it.

In a nutshell, the story is about a girl, Liz, who dies and finds herself on a ship to Elsewhere. This Elsewhere is actually the ying to earth's yang: one is the roots, the other is a tree. Life between Earth and Heaven is actually a fluid entity and is one that flows between. When one lands Elsewhere, they begin regressing from their Earth death age, until they are a baby again, and are sent to a river to become a new being. When one dies, they bring with them the memories of their Earth life, but soon they learn that the after Earth life is just as good. There is life after death, and it somewhat connects with this life, but also transitions a being towards one's rebirth.

The text was written in present tense, so it read like directions to a stage play. This drove me nuts until I was halfway through and I got angry. I said out loud, "Why is this written in present tense?" Then it occurred to me (and I actually thought it was clever) that on Earth, we write fiction in past tense and live our days in memory of yesterday. But Elsewhere, the after life, they life in the present. They don't operate in a past tense because they are in movement, constantly, of becoming something new.

And I finished the book with my 115 pound Baby in my lap, petting her ears. The dog has the softest ears, really, and when I got to the part when Liz's dog from Earth died of old age and arrived to Elsewhere as an arthritic pug, I immediately thought of Juliette Catherine Alanis Madonna Potatohead Scrappy Doo Olivia Houdini Dennis and hoped she arrived Elsewhere in a similar way. I hope that Tizzaphina Louise, Jake, Dusty, and Zoey are with her, too, speaking canine, until they become pups again, only to return to life on Earth as different dogs.

There will be other lives. There will be other deaths. The river flows.