The Brief History of the Dead
Ratings12
Average rating4.4
15
Ratings12
Average rating4.4
Laura Byrd is in trouble. Three weeks ago she and her friends found themselves alone in one of the coldest, most remote places on earth. Her friends set out in search of help, and now Laura realises that they are not coming back. So she gathers her remaining supplies and sets out on an extraordinary journey. Meanwhile in another city, more and more people arrive every day. Each has a different story to tell, but their accounts have one thing in common - it was their final journey. For this is the city of the dead. And the link between this city and Laura's journey lies at the heart of Kevin Brockmeier's remarkable novel. 'The Brief History of the Dead' tells a magical story about our lives - about our place in the world, our connections with each other, and what happens to us all after our deaths. It is a story of spellbinding power and imagination, which resonates long after the final page.
Reviews with the most likes.
This is winning science fiction in my opinion. I can't write about it without giving away the whole story. Just read it.
I really wish I could give .5 stars, because I'd like to give this book 3.5 stars. One of my favorite reads in 2007. A lovely idea, well executed. I always looked forward to picking it up.
So good! The basic premise is, after you die you hang around in a city until every last person who remembers you personally has died and then you pass on. ++plague. Very well written, I was happy I ILL'd this, even if I'd forgotten why by the time it showed up. I have a feeling it was a Brain Pickings weekly newsletter mention.
As mentioned previously, I'm not a fan of narrarating-from-the-dead stories. An author really has to be on their chops to get me to read and enjoy a novel with dead people as characters. David Long did it with The Inhabited World. Kevin Brockmeier just missed with The Brief History of the Dead.
It's an intriguing idea that drives the novel: dead people “live” on in a city of the dead as long as they are remembered by someone on Earth. When the last memory dies, so do they, disappearing from the city of the dead. Unfortunately, the author doesn't have much to say beyond that concept. The dead are much like the living...except they're dead. And when everyone on Earth starts kicking the proverbial bucket and the city of the dead begins emptying out, he has little to say about what that - and being alive - means.
