Reincarnation Blues

By Michael Poole

Milo has lived thousands of lives.  So far he has been unable to obtain perfection and pass on into perfect harmony with the Universal Oneness. But Milo is rapidly approaching the limit: 10,000 lives. If a soul is not able to perfect itself after 10,000 lifetimes, it is destroyed.
His first life ended in childhood. As he lay dying, he was visited by Death. Death appeared as a beautiful young girl. Death, or as she preferred to be called, Suzie, admired young Milo. She thought him resourceful and brave. And she sought him out in the land between life and eternity, a place were newly dead souls pause to wind down and take stock before jumping back into life. And so their attachment began, Milo and Suzie, and it lasted through and beyond Milo's thousands of lifetimes. It lasted through his repeated failures to achieve perfection. It lasted even when Suzie decided she would no longer be Death and she began to fade away.
Together, Milo and Suzie will face great suffering and deprivation. Will Milo finally be able to overcome his past and take the ultimate step into perfection?

The story follows Milo through some of his key lifetimes and explores his failures and his successes. Although his past lives were never good enough to win through to the ultimate goal of nirvana (although I don't think the word nirvana is ever used in the story). Three of the most important stories are set in the future and one in the time of Buddha where Milo is one of Buddha's followers. He ends up killing the Buddha. A mercy killing, but murder nonetheless. Perfection not attained.
In one of the stories set in the future, Milo as a promising young student is accused of rape by a disturbed young woman and is sent to prison. While in prison he discovers he has special powers, one of which includes the ability to heal the minds of his fellow prisoners resulting in them becoming peaceful and productive. Just as he is beginning to make a real difference in the lives of the inmates, he is told the woman has recanted and he is free to go back home. But he doesn't want to leave the work he has started with the inmates and resists. He is then shot with a stunner and transported against his will back home. The stunner destroys his special abilities and Milo drifts into a life of idleness and alcoholism. Then his accuser pays him a visit. She tells him she is sorry, that she was mentally ill but has undergone treatment and is doing quite well in her life. The injustice of it all hits Milo very hard and he commits suicide after she leaves.
This story was pretty typical of the tone of the stories. Most of them are kind of sad and depressing.  I also found the book kind of preachy. But the stories are very interesting and thought-provoking, if a little to grim for me.