Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantastic take on the afterlife, with plenty of metaphysical food for thought, Dec 6 2008
One of the few comforts we can draw on when facing up to our own mortality is the fact that we will live on in the memories of those we leave behind. Kevin Brockmeier takes this sentiment and envisions a world in which it is literally true. As such, The Brief History of the Dead makes for a unique take on the idea of life and death, as well as a poignant testimony to the power of memory.
For the dearly departed, there is no heaven or hell in this world of Brockmeier's imagination. Although the crossing can be extremely difficult, each soul finds his/her way to a magnificent City. Apart from the City's mysterious ability to expand in such a way that the newly arrived always have a place to live and work, it proves to be much like Earth. Many of its denizens take up the same kind of life they used to live, performing the same jobs and reuniting with loved ones who have also passed on, while others choose to reinvent themselves. After 60 or 70 years, many of them quietly disappear, but most are too busy living their own lives to really worry about their own distant future. It soon becomes clear, however, that those in the City remain there only as long as they exist in the living memories of individuals on Earth.
The great City undergoes drastic changes when a deadly virus back on Earth begins claiming the lives of a majority of the living world's population. Our only window into this futuristic Earth comes through the eyes of wildlife specialist Laura Byrd, but she could not be more isolated from the infection. Laura is in fact stranded on her own in a hut in deepest Antarctica, having had the rotten luck to be selected as one of three team members sent down there by the publicity-happy Coca-Cola Corporation to explore methods for using pure Antarctic ice in the manufacture of its product (which doesn't sound so crazy once you hear about the environmental problems of this futuristic Earth). Having lost their communications equipment to the elements, Laura's teammates set out for the nearest research station, promising to come back for her. That was over three weeks ago. With the hut's heating coils finally failing, Laura has no choice but to set out on her own. What follows is a visceral and engrossing survival story that would have done Jack London proud. As Laura struggles to survive, the denizens of the City find themselves drastically reduced in number. When they realize they each have a connection to Laura Byrd, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that every other man, woman, and child on Earth is now dead.
The big question is what will happen to the remaining denizens of the City once Laura herself dies. The reader will find this question almost as meaningful as the characters themselves, for Brockmeier makes you a part of their precarious afterlife. Two in particular, a journalism professor who had an affair with a young Laura and one of Laura's childhood friends, are wonderfully evocative characters who serve as the author's primary sounding boards for his speculative ideas of memory vis-à-vis human interaction and its implications for life (and even afterlife) itself.
It's a fascinating novel, but the conclusion may prove a little disappointing to some, for one could say that it ends with a whimper rather than a bang. As a reader, one cannot help but want more than Brockmeier gives us in the end, but I find it hard to criticize a book or its author on those terms. No matter what you think of the conclusion, The Brief History of the Dead is a poignant literary journey offering readers a unique perspective on some of the deepest questions of life and death.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A really interesting story about the afterlife, Feb 27 2007
Ok so I'm going to try and give the plot but not ruin it, so hopefully I can do it :) Basically in the book after you die you go to another "world" not too different than this one, it has buildings and jobs, except that you're dead and you know it too. The deceased figure as long as there are alive people who still remember them, they can exist in this world, especially since it seems that people only stay there for 60-70 years.
Bad news is back in the alive world a plague is ravaging the earth and killing most of the population. What will happen to the dead when no one remembers them? Where will the new dead people end up? And why are some people still remaining in the afterlife, what's their connection?
I really enjoyed this book. Not only was it very creative but Brockmeirer's writing is excellent and easy to flow through. For such a short book I'm surprised that I am so gung ho about it, but the author manages to pack an interesting, though provoking story into a faster read. I would say anyone should read this book, it was very good, and hey it's a short read so how can you go wrong?
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting concept, muddled delivery, Jan 27 2007
Tell me a story about the relationship between life and the afterlife, or tell me a story about the last remaining person on Earth, but please do not tell me about both in the same story. Separately, either of the concepts in this book is definitely interesting, but together, each concept seems incomplete and slightly ridiculous.
When the City is introduced, it's a fascinating notion of life after death, with wonderfully vivid descriptions of the unique way individuals find themselves in the afterlife. The City is then described in more detail through the point of view of various characters in the story. The concurrent story of the end of civilization, however, creates immediate conflict within the City so that it exists in a way that has never been before -- but what about the thousands of years that the City just existed?? Brockmeier never really addresses the day-to-day workings of the City such as: there seems to be some sort of money exchange within the City, but characters without a paying job are able to purchase things, and one character seems to be homeless; there are birds in the City, but they're the only animals other than people mentioned at all, and it's done so without explanation; and it's made clear that no one is the City has a heartbeat (they're dead, after all), but characters breathe away in their sleep. All of these things potentially have purposes -- and I anticipated learning about those purposes when I began reading the book -- but they are never address let alone explained as the City begins to change.
I can't say I'll be recommending this one.
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