Again and Again by Jonathan Evison
This book is awful. I once bought my mom a "Book of the Month" gift certificate and she didn't use it so she gave it to me. This was the only book I chose (gift certificate was for three months, I believe) and the old adage "food me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" keeps me from trying another. The main character in "Again and Again" is Eugene, a man who has lived many lives; he remembers his life in present day California, as a young may caught up in conquest in 700s Spain, and, in a completely unnecessary show of the author's self indulgence, as Oscar Wilde's cat. Through these thousand plus years, he's had one love and longs to find her again. This could be a sweeping, moving story of love that transcends time but it's not. "Again and Again" is filled with gratuitous flourishes in phrasing; if an undergrad wrote this Josh would tell them to use plain language and just focus on the story. Eugene proves an unre...