From Kevin Brockmeier, one of this generation's most inventive young writers, comes a striking new novel about death, life, and the mysterious place in between. The City is inhabited by those who have departed Earth but are still remembered by the living. They will reside in this afterlife until they are completely forgotten. But the City is shrinking, and the residents clearing out. Some of the holdouts, like Luka Sims, who produces the City’s only newspaper, are wondering what exactly is going on. Others, like Coleman Kinzler, believe it is the beginning of the end. Meanwhile, Laura Byrd is trapped in an Antarctic research station, her supplies are running low, her radio finds only static, and the power is failing. With little choice, Laura sets out across the ice to look for help, but time is running out. Kevin Brockmeier alternates these two storylines to create a lyrical and haunting story about love, loss and the power of memory.
The Brief History of the Dead: A Novel
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A deadly virus has spread rapidly across Earth, effectively cutting off wildlife specialist Laura Byrd at her crippled Antarctica research station from the rest of the world. Meanwhile, the planet's dead populate "the city," located on a surreal Earth-like alternate plane, but their afterlives depend on the memories of the living, such as Laura, back on home turf. Forced to cross the frozen tundra, Laura free-associates to keep herself alert; her random memories work to sustain a plethora of people in the city, including her best friend from childhood, a blind man she'd met in the street, her former journalism professor and her parents. Brockmeier (The Truth About Celia) follows all of them with sympathy, from their initial, bewildered arrival in the city to their attempts to construct new lives. He meditates throughout on memory's power and resilience, and gives vivid shape to the city, a place where a giraffe's spots might detach and hover about a street conversation among denizens. He simultaneously keeps the stakes of Laura's struggle high: as she fights for survival, her parents find a second chance for love—but only if Laura can keep them afloat. Other subplots are equally convincing and reflect on relationships in a beautiful, delicate manner; the book seems to say that, in a way, the virus has already arrived. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–In a not-so-distant future, a deadly virus kills off every human on Earth, except for Laura Byrd, a wildlife specialist on an expedition to the South Pole. Readers quickly learn that the dead move on to another life in a fantastic city on another plane of existence; there, they live out a second life free from aging and disease until every person who knew them on Earth dies. The chapters alternate between Laura and those in the city of the dead, often showing how these individuals connect to her. The elegiac, thoughtful tone of the writing is balanced by the survivor's adventure-filled travels across the frozen landscape as she hopelessly searches for signs of others. A crisis develops in the city as the only ones who remain finally realize that they continue to exist because Laura is still fighting for her life on Earth. Brockmeier's style–elements of fantasy mixed with a strong sense of character and a wonderful lyricism–will remind readers of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (Random, 2004). Although lacking some of the far-reaching depth of Mitchell's work, Brockmeier's haunting reminder of how connected people are to one another will appeal to readers of fantasy yearning for a bit more to think about than the usual fare offers.–Matthew L. Moffett, Ford's Theatre Society, Washington, DC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 56 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like many who have reacted to this novel, the first chapter knocked me out. I had already read two disparate critiques in newspapers of the book that led me to seek the book out, so I knew that after the opening the initial thrill might not sustain itself. This hesitation was, after I read the novel straight through in two sittings, shown to be true. The long polar trek of Laura does borrow from the well-titled "The Worst Journey in the World," but I found these sections, after a while, rather pat and uninvolving most of the time. It's difficult to stay interested in Laura's predicament after a while, with nobody else for her to talk to or to keep us alert. She has not led that exciting a life for her to have a lot of recollections to fall back upon that make her any more than ordinary. And, in a novel, we don't want to be stuck with the mundane girl-next-door as a protagonist, even if she is in dire straits in a terrible place. The scene-setting of the first cabin and her growing peril sets up this phase of the narrative promisingly, but once she's out on the ice the plot holds no surprises. Like her, we get drowsy in this lonely stretch of the novel.
As for the city-in-limbo, it was puzzling if, as seemed to be confirmed in the Coke executive's reverie, the city increasingly was "populated" not only by the people Laura was thinking of, but that Laura "generated" everything else in the city rather than what the inhabitants themselves did in the city. It seems that the people in the city limited what could and could not be done in the city, as their occupations seem to constrain what the city contained--not only the people, but objects. There are no salting trucks to melt the snow because Laura knew no salting truck driver: all of this background needed more clarification. Also, the reciprocation of thinking by those in the city as felt by Laura was too glossed over and marginal in the narrative that indirectly occured from her p-o-v.
Many of those found in the city proved remarkably dull: Minny, for example, considering the time spent on her by the author. The walking preacher character was necessary to show a religious fanatic's reaction to the city, but again, he failed to keep my interest. The whole place seemed more like a Edward Hopper painting of sorry urbanites rather than a place where food was cooked, papers were sold, and business seemed to go on much as before. There's a noirish air to the whole place, but it seemed less appealing than its inhabitants seemed to consider their residence. I guess there's no alternative! However, as the Antarctic marbles signal a climactic phase of the story, Brockmeier recovered his initial control of the novel and it came to a satisfactory and well-written closing.
Like so much SF and speculative literature, this would have worked better as a novella of 100 pages. At 250 pp., there's too much padding, and most of the supporting characters do not motivate the reader to want to pause and ponder their predicament. With these sorts of apocalyptic fables, it often remains a challenge for writers to keep the characterization gripping as the amount of people diminish in the bleak setting, but I still would recommend this book for, as with so much SF again, the fantastic world-view that it shares and elaborates.
As for the city-in-limbo, it was puzzling if, as seemed to be confirmed in the Coke executive's reverie, the city increasingly was "populated" not only by the people Laura was thinking of, but that Laura "generated" everything else in the city rather than what the inhabitants themselves did in the city. It seems that the people in the city limited what could and could not be done in the city, as their occupations seem to constrain what the city contained--not only the people, but objects. There are no salting trucks to melt the snow because Laura knew no salting truck driver: all of this background needed more clarification. Also, the reciprocation of thinking by those in the city as felt by Laura was too glossed over and marginal in the narrative that indirectly occured from her p-o-v.
Many of those found in the city proved remarkably dull: Minny, for example, considering the time spent on her by the author. The walking preacher character was necessary to show a religious fanatic's reaction to the city, but again, he failed to keep my interest. The whole place seemed more like a Edward Hopper painting of sorry urbanites rather than a place where food was cooked, papers were sold, and business seemed to go on much as before. There's a noirish air to the whole place, but it seemed less appealing than its inhabitants seemed to consider their residence. I guess there's no alternative! However, as the Antarctic marbles signal a climactic phase of the story, Brockmeier recovered his initial control of the novel and it came to a satisfactory and well-written closing.
Like so much SF and speculative literature, this would have worked better as a novella of 100 pages. At 250 pp., there's too much padding, and most of the supporting characters do not motivate the reader to want to pause and ponder their predicament. With these sorts of apocalyptic fables, it often remains a challenge for writers to keep the characterization gripping as the amount of people diminish in the bleak setting, but I still would recommend this book for, as with so much SF again, the fantastic world-view that it shares and elaborates.
94 of 105 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
With the publishing industry fixating on the next DaVinci Code, alphabetical mysteries, and serial killers, it's a treat to find a truly original young writer. And Brockmeier is no flash in the pan, either; He's won the O. Henry Award, the Nelson Algren Award, An Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.
I would imagine some readers thought Brockmeier was riding on the coattails of the LOVELY BONES, but that's just not the case. Brockmeier doles out equal portions of pessimism and optimism, and just when you think you've got this pitcher figured out he throws you a knuckleball.
The novel alternates between the adventures of Laura Byrd, a Coca Cola researcher stranded in the Antarctic, and the City of the Dead. The earth has been decimated by a virus called "The Blinks." Brockmeier's notion of an afterlife is a way station where people must stay until people whom they have known on earth have also died. Over half of them have known Laura Byrd.
The people who live in the City of the Dead are not ghosts. They will remind you of your next-door neighbors. They get up, have breakfast, and go to work, just like normal people. They appear to have corporal bodies. One of the characters, the Blind Man, wonders about this. He has a theory about the difference between the spirit and the soul. He believes the spirit connects the body and the soul, and that when the spirit dies, we move on to the next life.
Parts of the novel are definitely satirical. There's a Coca Cola executive who's still trying to cover-up Coca Cola's connection to the Blinks for one thing. It can also be funny as when one of the new arrivals, an avowed atheist, is thrilled that he was wrong. But was he? Brockmeier never really lets the reader gain a firm footing.
Brockmeier is smart enough to alternate between Laura story and the City of the Dead. Without Laura the novel might lose its credibility. When Laura strikes out on her "sledge" to find her co-researchers, Puckett and Joyce, we're hoping one of them is alive and immune and maybe Laura will start a new civilization. At least I was. But maybe that's the incurable romantic in me.
Some will find the ending a bit disappointing. It was metaphysical to say the least. It reminded me a lot of the ending in 2001 Space Odyssey. But I remember watching that movie with my dad, a farmer with his feet planted firmly on the ground, and he was just as transfixed as I was. You will be, too, if you give THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD a chance.
I would imagine some readers thought Brockmeier was riding on the coattails of the LOVELY BONES, but that's just not the case. Brockmeier doles out equal portions of pessimism and optimism, and just when you think you've got this pitcher figured out he throws you a knuckleball.
The novel alternates between the adventures of Laura Byrd, a Coca Cola researcher stranded in the Antarctic, and the City of the Dead. The earth has been decimated by a virus called "The Blinks." Brockmeier's notion of an afterlife is a way station where people must stay until people whom they have known on earth have also died. Over half of them have known Laura Byrd.
The people who live in the City of the Dead are not ghosts. They will remind you of your next-door neighbors. They get up, have breakfast, and go to work, just like normal people. They appear to have corporal bodies. One of the characters, the Blind Man, wonders about this. He has a theory about the difference between the spirit and the soul. He believes the spirit connects the body and the soul, and that when the spirit dies, we move on to the next life.
Parts of the novel are definitely satirical. There's a Coca Cola executive who's still trying to cover-up Coca Cola's connection to the Blinks for one thing. It can also be funny as when one of the new arrivals, an avowed atheist, is thrilled that he was wrong. But was he? Brockmeier never really lets the reader gain a firm footing.
Brockmeier is smart enough to alternate between Laura story and the City of the Dead. Without Laura the novel might lose its credibility. When Laura strikes out on her "sledge" to find her co-researchers, Puckett and Joyce, we're hoping one of them is alive and immune and maybe Laura will start a new civilization. At least I was. But maybe that's the incurable romantic in me.
Some will find the ending a bit disappointing. It was metaphysical to say the least. It reminded me a lot of the ending in 2001 Space Odyssey. But I remember watching that movie with my dad, a farmer with his feet planted firmly on the ground, and he was just as transfixed as I was. You will be, too, if you give THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD a chance.
57 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"The Brief History of the Dead" is by no means a perfect book, but it IS original, thought-provoking, gorgeously written and, ultimately, very moving. Kevin Brockmeier has taken some huge risks in attempting this very complex novel and, for the most part, they pay off. At first, I thought the first part of the book "telegraphed" too much of what would happen in the second half, but I was wrong. I was riveted, waiting to find out exactly how the two parts of the story would converge, and along the way to a very satisfying conclusion, I laughed, I cried, I was frightened, and I thought a great deal. I recommend it highly.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
staying power
I read this book when it first came out, and it has stayed with me. So richly, thoughtfully imagined, haunting, sad but not depressing, very true and an excellent read.
Published 3 days ago by Linda R. Petrilli
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dead End Deliberators
Mr. Brockmeier's novel reminded me of the late Ray Bradbury's work. The story occurs sometime in the not-too-distant future. Read more
Published 16 days ago by Franklin the Mouse
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting premise, well written
I bought this book most recently to replace one I lost in a house fire, so I've not read it since it arrived. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Barbara A. Saunders-jones
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting premise
Generally enjoyed it. Not great, but an easy read. The story of the woman going across the arctic dragged. A little disappointed in the denouement.
Published 2 months ago by James Taborn
2.0 out of 5 stars
A human nightmare
The book wandered like the human mind during a restless night of dream and niightmare filled sleep. Thought provoking. Try describing this book to a friend!!!
Published 3 months ago by Ray C
3.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting
Set sometime in the not too distant future, The Brief History of the Dead is a mixture of post-apocalyptic and fantasy, with alternating chapters between The City and the real... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Kat from The Aussie Zombie
5.0 out of 5 stars
So unique
One of the most imaginative novels i've ever read. For that reason alone I loved it. I'm hooked on Kevin Brockmeier.
Published 5 months ago by My two cents
2.0 out of 5 stars
interesting concept, poor execution
This book fell short of my expectations. I was drawn in by the idea that the recently-dead find themselves in a mysterious earth-like city as long as someone who knew them in... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Sam
5.0 out of 5 stars
Life and the afterlife
This book pulled me in from the first page and I read it all in one day. It's a bit hard to review without spoilers, and I'd like other readers to share my surprise at the... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Underground Crafter
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved this story!
I really enjoyed this unusual take on death and the afterlife. The characters were well rounded and believable. I just wish the story had been longer!
Published 5 months ago by Alicia Dorsey
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