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August 25, 2002
REVIEW: Signals from beyond
“YOU are in the right place at the right time otherwise you would be somewhere else” — that in a nutshell is the message of Joel Rothschild’s book Signals. It is a beautiful book of hope with insights that will bring light to the darkness that very often surrounds us.
It is the true story of Rothschild and his best friend Albert and about their unconditional love for each other in times of happiness and sorrow. Both were victims of the AIDS onslaught that hit Los Angeles. A common occurrence in this materialistic world — we expect only our parents and people older than us to die. A friend isn’t supposed to die and least of all a best friend — in fact that’s exactly why we usually have friends of our own age. They go through life with us.
But that doesn’t always happen. As Albert and Joel witness the deaths of many close friends, they make a promise — whoever died first would try his best to contact the other from the other world by whatever signals he can. Finally, it is Joel, the more sceptical of the two who gets left behind after his soul mate commits an uninformed suicide.
Shattered by indefatigable grief and tormented and devastated by the anger he feels, Joel sees his world fall apart. It is at this delicate time that Albert’s signals and small yet incomprehensibly deep messages start arriving for Joel’s awakening, proving to him the existence of an afterlife.
This book is about life and death and love and God — the creator of all three. But most of all, this book is a connection between the worlds of life and afterlife. Rothschild, one of the longest surviving AIDS patients of America, has written a wonderful book. It is less a timeless work of literature but more a pathway to show how to state your truly spiritual experiences and feelings.
Life is a wonderful road but we all know about the bumps on this road. Joel makes the road smoother through his delicate insight into the internal choices that can make all the difference. This is a book every person who has experienced the loss of a loved one will want to have, to read and to reread. It is a moving testimonial to the courage and strength of a man who has grieved and it is a beacon of hope for those in the process. Grieving is not a passive process but an active willingness to feel, to sort out and weigh experience, and to risk new attachments. After reading this book, I was convinced that the reason we are here is to remember, if we understand — that memory is that unique human ability to create from the past a sense of meaning in the present and a trembling anticipation of possibility in the future. One of the most crucial and most difficult of all tasks is to retrieve the thread of purpose that runs through the life we had with a lost friend, and find a way to reattach the thread in our present circumstances, in order to again have a sense that life has meaning.
Rothschild’s Signals is gracefully written, painfully sad and very moving. It is one of those rare books that alter the way you feel and what you wish would never end.
Signals: an inspiring story of life after life
By Joel Rothschild
Bantam Books
Available at Paramount Books, 152/O, Block 2, PECH Society, Karachi-75400 Tel: 021-4310030.
Email: paramount@cyber.net.pk
ISBN 0-553-81359-5 162pp. Rs295
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