Eric Arvin (1975–2016)

4.5. Stars

Really just a beautiful and thoughtful meditation on what happens to us after we’ve passed away. It’s not all hearts and flowers, nor is it all doom and gloom, this is a place where one goes to hopefully find peace and make amends despite past mistakes and wrongs.

Our hero Joe awakens in an unknown realm. It’s fascinatingly wondrous but there’s a pressing urgency for him to rediscover himself down memory lane so that he can fully reap the benefits of his new existence. As Joe slowly remembers, there’s many a sucker punch of emotions through glimpses of his struggles, both triumphant and terribly painful, but most importantly is finally finding his true love - someone who’s everything to him, someone who he must reunite with.

Arvin’s take is not black and white but pervasive with redemption, forgiveness, and a tentative happiness should one be brave enough to take a chance at seizing it. Though perhaps Joe didn’t get his ultimate fairy tale ending when alive, rest assured he finds his blissful forever in Arvin’s blending of many interpretations, creating a unique (and personally preferred) alternative to the paradigm.

Overall affecting and thought provoking with a truly wonderful, and for once, both literally and figuratively, happily ever after.… (more)

‘The moon’s brightness made the creek below resemble a forgotten cobbled road leading to some ancient and terribly important place. A place out of which myths are born. A place where the feeling of new experiences never dies, never exhausts or extinguishes, where the passion for truth is enmeshed in the very notion of life.’ (page 99)

The Rest is Illusion tells the story of a tree, watching a river and witnessing the story of Dashel.
Dashel is grabbing the last days of his life, and his friends Sarah, Ashley, Tony, and ‘Wilder’ are jumping the last obstacles so to reach adulthood.
The ancient Celts venerated trees as font of wisdom, hope, and imagine of the cycle of life / seasons. So The Rest is Illusion tells the relation between Nature, also as weather, physical universe, life, and people wanting to hear about magic, helped by Nature.

Eric Arvin could have written the usual coming of age tale, but he has preferred magic’s help. The characters find comfort close to the tree and its surroundings, and Nature give them advises through magic.

I didn’t like: the end of the story, kind of life goes on; Wilder’s character is depicted too many times; some dialogs say more than once the same concept.

A note, page 127: Giacomo Puccini’s title opera is Gianni Schicchi, and not Scacchi (chess). An aria from this opera is quoted ‘O mio bambino caro’ (Oh my dear child), instead of ‘O mio babbino caro’ (Oh my dear daddy). Maybe the correct quoted aria is coherent with the character of Sarah Coheen and her father’s relation.… (more)

Reviewed on Hearts On Fire... http://heartsonfirereviews.com/

Joe is dead and standing in a barley field. He has no memories but feels a strong attraction to a Stranger he meets who tells Joe to have "great courage". Along with his guide, Baker, Joe heads off to rediscover the life he lived and to make things right. This was an awesome story of one soul's journey through his life reliving the happiness and tragedies and learning the many things that he missed the first time around. It reminded me very much of the Hindu belief in reincarnation and the road to Nirvana. The vivid descriptions and the free style writing made this story a joy to read. I enjoyed the way that each important place on Joe's journey was packed with things that Joe either didn't want to face or had completely missed his first time around. Some stops were fun while other were heart wrenching. The whole theme of heaven is what you make it goes so much more for life itself. The story flowed beautifully and read easily. All of the secondary characters were wonderful and quirky and kept reinforcing in Joe that you just need to be yourself. This is a great book to read when you have time to sit and think about it because the story will not leave your mind alone.… (more)