I selected this book from the Early Reviewers choices because it was about a self-absorbed college professor who grew up in India and teaches in the U.S., but also because it tells of existence after death. When Kiran dies, he joins his predecessors in Eidos, an astral planet not understood by anyone, including those that live there. Curiosity and academic work continue after death, and I think this view of afterlife appeals to us in a time where we must produce or fail. Betty is an academic, a professor of religious studies at CSU Bakersfield, with another book called “The Afterlife Unveiled,” and so his hypotheses of afterlife are based on research. His premise of where we go after death calls to mind the afterlives in “The Lovely Bones” and “A Brief History of the Dead.” Another afterlife connection is the book "Spook" by Mary Roach.
Whereas “Imprisoned” gives us a thought-provoking possibility, it also works very well as a story, and I don’t say this often, but I think it is a story my mother would have liked.
Kiran’s story begins with his death. He had spent his life moving from religion to religion and questioning faith, especially the existence of life after death and reincarnation, and now he has the answer. He also finds that he has work to do after death. He must reexamine his life and decide the path he wants for the future. He must help others in the afterlife, especially those that were negatively affected by his actions in the earthly world.
How much impact do we really have as college professors? Can what we do affect our students for the rest of their lives? For good or bad? Or are we insignificant players in their lives? In fact, students learn many things from their professors, mathematics, philosophy and literature from our lessons and how to act and react from observing what we do.
In “Imprisoned,” Kiran focuses on his arrogance and his purposeful brutality. I was somewhat surprised that his introspection did not balance the positive with the negative, and I wonder if that is a cultural/religious difference that I need to understand more. Is the atonement for sins that I grew up with not mirrored in Hindu and Buddhist faiths?
Even though I believe I have their interests at heart, I’m sure students are injured by me, especially at those times when I have to tell them something that is counter to their self-image. Do we know how to draw the line between constructive criticism and arrogant attacks? How can we know if a student’s ego can withstand even the constructive criticism without damage?
“Imprisoned” grabbed my attention from the beginning with both the story of Kiran’s passage through the afterlife and as a starting point for questions I should ask myself about what I believe and the impact I have on others during my life.
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