The Land of Later On
Written by Anthony Weller
Narrated by Robin Bloodworth
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Kip—a New York jazz pianist whose career was cut short by a neurological disease—returns from a failed suicide attempt with a vivid, detailed memory of his journey through the afterlife. Resembling the world as he knows it, but unlimited in space and time, it’s unlike any eternity he has contemplated. Its residents are those who choose not to reincarnate, which would erase all memory of who they once were. Kip has a quest: to find his beloved Lucy, a yoga teacher who shared his apartment for years but died of leukemia before he took his own life. Is she still here? Has she waited for him, or “gone back” to become someone else? In his odyssey across centuries and locales (Istanbul to the Marquesas Islands, India to Oklahoma and New Guinea) to find her, Kip is guided by Walt Whitman—who urges him to write this memoir on his return.
Anthony Weller
Anthony Weller was born in 1957. His books include novels—The Garden of the Peacocks, The Polish Lover, and The Siege of Salt Cove—and a travel memoir of India and Pakistan, Days and Nights on the Grand Trunk Road. He is also well known as a musician. His poems and stories have appeared widely. As a journalist he traveled through Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the Pacific, Central America and the Caribbean, for National Geographic, G.Q., Forbes, GEO, the Paris Review, the New York Times Magazine, etc. He recently edited two books of his father’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting. First into Nagasaki: The Censored Eyewitness Dispatches on Post-Atomic Japan and Its Prisoners of War (introduction by Walter Cronkite) was named by Kirkus one of the best books of 2006, followed by Weller’s War: A Legendary Foreign Correspondent’s Saga of WWII on Five Continents.
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Reviews for The Land of Later On
17 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Interesting premise, amusingly written. The Land of Later On concerns a journey into the afterlife one man takes in search of his beloved wife, with Walt Whitman standing in for Virgil. A light meditation on marriage and mortality.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Since I've written a novel speculating about life and the hereafter, I thought I'd read other takes on the subject. The Land of Later On offers a unique proposal for the afterlife experience, and a cycle of reincarnation that differs from the religious that espouse such types of soul recycling. The writing flowed and was well edited. The characters were fleshy with added spice of music appreciation and nostalgic romance. In essence, this was an interesting and well crafted story.
As plot and pacing goes, the substance was stretched to novel length, making it seem a bit thin in places. It could have used more plots and subplots, additional conflicts, etc to make a novel. At times I felt I was reading a shaggy dog story. Some novels pull off shaggy dogs, but the meandering must be made amazing, which was lacking here. A bit too straight forward and lacking of gold nuggets or pearls. That said, when the goal was reached, the author pulled out a surprise, and for that, I was grateful. 3.5 stars, but I can't say it lifted to a four for me, which was frustrating due to the potential of several characters that were drawn, pointed the way like a road sign, then forgotten. I would have liked to have known them....instead of the neat and tidy ending which seemed to be the author dwelling on a gimmick. Give me a messy, fun ride over dotted eyes any day, and I'd give a 4 or 5 star rating.....