Thursday, November 08, 2007

THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD

The Brief History of the Dead, Kevin Brockmeier, Random House Inc, 2006, 252 pp


"The City" is a place where dead people hang out for a while, living somewhat regular lives, except they all know that they have died. Eventually they disappear. The theory amongst them is that as long as there is someone left on Earth who remembers any one of them, they remain in The City.

Meanwhile, the people of Earth are rapidly dying from a virus which has spread across the entire planet. In Antarctica is a woman who was part of an exploratory/promotional mission funded by Coca Cola.

I can't say more without giving away too much. I loved the wild imagination of this story. The book is like a dream: it doesn't all make sense but has a wondrous quality. There is nothing creepy or depressing about a story of dead people and the destruction of the human race. How did he do that?

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