reviews_and_ramblings | The Rest is Illusion by Eric Arvin

This is the first novel by Eric Arvin, I think he self-published it years ago. It’s not the first book I read by Eric Arvin, and I’m happy about it, since I had the chance to read the witty humor of Eric Arvin in his other books, to read contemporary and fantasy tale, but in all of them there was also the bright light of hope. Why am I saying this? Since The Rest is Illusion is filled with autobiographical hints from Eric Arvin’s real life, and Dash, the young college student around who all the other characters turn is probably a propelled image of Eric’s himself. And it’s not a light story, it’s not an happily ever after story, at least not a classical happily ever after: Dash will find his way, but it’s a way that will cause pain and open questions to many of his friends. And so I’m glad to have had the chance to know another Eric Arvin, one that fought and won his own battle, and now is writing happily ever after romance.

I wondered a lot on the title, The Rest is Illusion: in the end I found my own meaning, the group of college students living in Verona College campus are also living in a secluded place, almost a limbo between their teenager years and adulthood; all of them are trying to find their path in life, to find their own persona separated from the family they were born in; all of them have to prove something, mainly to their parents. The life in campus is not still real life, but for them it’s the most important thing now, the rest, everything is out from that campus, is illusion, not real. But even in their secluded college they are living a lie, pretending to be someone they are not.

Dash is on a time limit, he has a degenerative illness who has already killed his father, and he is going step by step along the same path. He has no hope to find an exit from this nightmare, and I think that, even if not in a conscious way, he is trying to help his friends to find that exit he is not allowed to have. Ashley, the albino guy who is his roommate, always trying to fill his life with color, always trying to be as much a presence as his own body without color seems to not allow him. Sarah, who fell in love with Dash, but soon realized she couldn’t be anything else if not a best friend for him. Tony, in the same fraternity as Dash, who is hiding his own sexuality, while instead Dash is openly gay. For all of them Dash has a way out, and his journey in life will not end until he will not help all of them; it’s like if, until Dash has a reason to be, a purpose to follow, his illness will give him time: like for his final college paper, always growing, always researching, always without an end; Dash is not running ahead of time to finish it before the end, Dash is always finding a way to not put the “end” word on that paper.

There was this feeling while I was reading the book, the feeling that I didn’t want for things to find their right spot since I knew that once they did, Dash would have not reason to be. I think this book was a way for the author to exorcize his own fears, and once he did, he almost buried it in a drawer; the fact that now he is ready to let it out again is for me a good sign, Dash/Eric has found a way out of that limbo that was Verona College, into the real life.

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