Elsewhere captivates the mind

November 6, 2009  
Filed under Entertainment, Reviews

By Jordan Sunkel
Round Table reporter

When I enter Borders and head to the young readers section, I rarely have a book in mind that I know I want to read. The last time I browsed the shelves, I came across Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. I admit that I judge books by their covers and this cover intrigued me: it depicted a boat inside of a snow globe.   

This story is unlike any other novel I have ever read. The story goes backward in time, due to the conditions of Elsewhere and how people get to Elsewhere. In Zevin’s novel, Elsewhere is where people go when they die, similar to Heaven, but the inhabitants aren’t so sure.

Elizabeth Hall is dead. She remembers “the sensation of flying through the air, which seemed to last an eternity.  She could remember feeling reckless, happy, and doomed, all at the same time. She could remember thinking, I am above gravity.” Liz was hit by a taxicab while she was on her way to go prom dress shopping with her friend, Zooey.

Waking up on the SS Nile, she is confused and refuses to acknowledge that she’s dead. As she meets interesting characters along the way, like Curtis Jest, the lead singer of Liz’s favorite band, Machine, Betty, her grandmother, and Owen, her driving instructor, she starts to realize that there’s no going back; her new life is in Elsewhere.

Zevin’s creativity is outstanding. She puts a whole new spin on the afterlife, of what lies beyond death. When people get to Elsewhere, they get a new birthday, the day they first arrive. Liz’s new birthday is Jan. 4. Liz learns that “no one new is born in Elsewhere, but no one dies either. People get sick and hurt, but with time, everyone eventually heals,” because everyone ages backward.

Zevin writes, “Oh, there are so many lives. How we wish we could live them concurrently instead of one by one by one. We could select the best pieces of each, stringing them together like a strand of pearls. But that’s not how it works. A human’s life is a beautiful mess.” The words are very powerful, everyone wishes to have a different life, but we only have what we get and we have to deal with what we have.

“Happiness is a choice,” Zevin reminds us through Liz. Things may go wrong, but it’s up to the person to make things okay and to choose happiness.