Maya - jostein gaarder

i read the book halfway more than a decade ago. Decided to give it a try again. This is probably my least favorite among Gaarder's books.
The story revolved around John Spooke, an English writer, frank, a Norwegian biologist and his estranged wife, Vera, Ana Maria Maya, the title character and her husband, Jose. The plot unfolded on a relatively unknown Fijian island- Taveuni. Frank was taken by the Spanish couple when he overheard their conversation of philosophical quotes that mirrored his own thoughts. Frank and John both found Ana familiar but could not recall where they might have met her. John later managed to associate her face with that of a painting by Goya, which left him baffled. How could someone from the past paint someone from the future?
As with Gaarder's past novels, the core/purpose of the book is to toss philosophical questions to its readers. However, I don't find this book as "philosophical" and more, outlandish. Nearing the end of the book, a dwarf who could time travel was introduced and it was suggested that this dwarf took pictures of Ana and time travelled with the pics which were later found by Goya. I got a bit lost at the end. Was this section part of the fictitious work of John Spooke? There was an alternate ending in the last chapter.
Some of the questions the characters dappled with in the book were the purpose of life, eternal life, shared consciousness, etc  As a evolutionary biologist, frank thought that there could not have been an intention to creation/evolution and that living things were a result of accidents. However in the later part of the book when the characters were discussing above the universe, Frank said it would be a terrible waste of space if there was only life on earth. He knew then by stating this sentiment, it implied that there is a creator of the universe and a purpose behind the creation. Some suggested that the purpose of human being's existence was for the universe to experience itself through the human's consciousness.
Frank also had a fear of death. Both Vera and he talked about having an elixir of life and finding someone to share it with. There was also a sub story of a woman possessing this elixir but never finding anyone to give the other half to because she had the benefit of time and too many choices. It's a pretty frightening thought though, to live forever and to have the discernment to share it with the right person. Otherwise, the mistake lives with you forever.
Forever..... I'm not sure at this point in time if I like the idea of eternity, which is kinda funny coming from a Christian. Why are people obsessed with eternal life? I mean I do like the idea of having all the time in the world to do whatever I want, with no fear of time running out or that I would be too decrepit to do something. But eternity is so intense and immense, that it frightens me at the same time. What do you do if you can live forever? I just can't imagine a life like that.
I think the book also touched on reality- how do we know where we are now is real? But honestly can't remember much about this part except for a joker and elves. Only the joker was awaken from his dream and was aware of reality. The elves just continued living in their fantasy worlds.
I recently watched shutter island and it did blow me away. We could create our own realities and we would never know which are real and which are not. Another unrelated thing was what the fictitious Rachel said," once you are declared insane by someone, everything else that u say or do is part of that insanity." It gives me the shudders to think how true that statement is.