The Incarnations

Starred review from May 18, 2015
With her latest, Barker (Sayonara Bar) produces a page-turning reincarnation fantasy. In modern-day Beijing, Driver Wang receives anonymous letters from a source claiming to have known him in five previous lifetimes over the past 1,000 years. The letters narrate these lifetimes—set in the Tang Dynasty, 632 C.E.; the Jin Dynasty, 1213; the Ming Dynasty, 1542; the Qing Dynasty, 1836; and the People’s Republic of China, 1966—and paint them in lush historical detail, exhibiting Barker’s extensive research. These two “souls” have inhabited many rich characters (eunuch, prostitute, slave, concubine, pirate, Red Guard) and have been friends, enemies, parents, and lovers. Every new incarnation reverses their power dynamic, giving one the opportunity to betray the other. Not for the squeamish, these historical narratives contain graphic torture and sexual violence. Meanwhile, Wang’s current incarnation also includes a series of radical shifts and identities within a lifetime: born to a wealthy government official father and a mentally unstable mother, he has been a promising student, an asylum inmate, a closeted homosexual, a husband, a father, and a taxi driver. Driving the narrative is the suspense over the identity of Wang’s stalker and whether the stories are indeed true. A very memorable read.

This surreal story recounts the many lives of Wang, a taxi driver, and his unnamed female "soul mate," whom he knew in previous lives. Narrator Joy Osmanski vigorously delivers the lives of the female in her various incarnations as bride, slave, and letter writer to Wang. Narrator Timo Chen portrays Wang, but his bass pitch reverberates, making him difficult to understand. The mysterious soul mate knows all, writing letters to the present-day Wang, who knows nothing of his past incarnations. As Wang, in the present, searches for the person leaving him the letters, his past lives unfold slowly, relentlessly, and piteously, touching upon many periods in Chinese history. Chen and Osmanski use subtle Chinese intonation and accents for Barker's tale of intertwined lives. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine