𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙
Annotations and author notes to 𝘉𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩.
Can be read alongside the novel as a companion work, but not recommended for those who simply want to read in peace. For complet...
Quote From the play, A Woman of No Importance (1893), by Oscar Wilde. The full quote is:
Lord Illingworth. I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex. But, if you wish, let us stay here. Yes, let us stay here. The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden. Mrs. Allonby. It ends with revelations.
The quote refers to the Bible ("the book of life"), beginning with The Book of Genesis, which features the Garden of Eden, and ending with The Book of Revelation (incorrectly called Revelations quite often, including by Mrs Allonby, for witty Wildean reasons).
As my note at the end points out, the Bible actually begins in chaos and darkness: "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep." And Revelation ends in a feverish vision of an impossible Heaven.
When you finish reading the story, you may decide for yourself whether it follows the second model suggested by the Bible or not.
The Garden The relationship between Julian and Noel in the story begins in a garden, to suggest the beauty and innocence of Eden. The new arrivals who are still at the House of Healing are shown smelling flowers in delight and helping themselves to fruit from the trees – the name Eden may be from the Hebrew for "pleasure, delight". The scent of the flowers and taste of the fruit no doubt have healing properties in themselves.
The Garden of Eden is also about temptation, and Julian certainly feels a little tempted here!
Defending Your Life Julian and Noel are vaguely analogous to the main characters in the film, Daniel and Julia. The awkward, insecure Daniel (Albert Brooks) faces being sent back to Earth. He falls for Julia (Meryl Streep), a sweet warm person who embraces all the pleasures offered to her, and seems to be headed for a higher plane of existence. You can see how Julian and Noel seemed perfect for these respective roles!
Noel Reality Check Noel has blond hair in the story, because his natural hair colour in youth was a sort of dark blond/light brown colour. He's dyed it dark for years, but I imagined how he looked when he dyed his hair blond in his twenties (see Photo Album). It makes sense to me that dyed hair, along with other body modifications such as tattoos, piercings, cosmetic surgery, and prosthetic limbs, would not follow you into the Afterlife.
Julian thinks Noel might be a child when he first sees him. Noel joked that he looked 13 when he was 23 and met Julian – he did look very young, and could have easily passed for 16 or so.
Noel's naughty comment on his youthful appearance compared to the older, tall Julian:
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Noel caught hepatitis when he was at college, was ill and exhausted for a year, and didn't drink alcohol for the next five years. He credits his friend Nigel Coan for helping him through this difficult time; Nigel would later become an animator on The Mighty Boosh TV show. In real life, this happened a year or two later than in the story – I might as well admit now I didn't settle on a timeline for the story until it was almost over, and originally I was thinking of Noel and Julian as being a bit older.
