Customer Reviews

Life After Death

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The reviews on the back cover mention humor and laughter, but the only time I laughed while reading this book was when Boyd gave the dollhouse daddy doll a swirly. Given the initial premise (she tells her husband to die and the next day he does), I expected some black humor. But this book rarely provoked even a smile.

I don't need humor. A book doesn't have to have a plot. I can even overlook disjointed dialog (this book has its share). What I cannot forgive are characters I don't care about and can't understand. I could not get a clear picture of just who these people were or why they behaved as they did, especially toward each other. In fact, the only one for whom I felt any sympathy was poor dead Russell; like most people, he just wanted to be loved.

At the end of the book, I was still waiting for the answers to questions such as: Why did Boyd hate Russell (and his mother) so much? What was the point of refusing her inheritance? How did she feel about Will? After losing the patient during a legal abortion, why would she risk performing one on a minor with no one else attending? Why were the last few pages about Roger?

Freddy, the four-year-old daughter, seemed to be the only one with any sense: when the going got rough, she fell asleep.

I was intrigued by the author's approach to life and death. This was an interesting read but I seemed to want more at the end. Muske-Dukes gives you something to think about while enlisting your mind in her characters. A gentle read.

I was really wanting more from this novel -- I didn't find it hard to get through, as another reviewer mentioned below, I just found it lacking in several areas. The characters are likable enough -- I just didn't find them interesting or sympathetic in many ways. The woman who is the center of the story has married a man I suspect she does not really love -- and barely respects -- and put her medical career on hold in order to have a child and make a life with him. In her case, the verb 'make' connotes a bit of a feeling of 'force' -- their life together doesn't seem to mesh, their personalities seem to be very much at odds with one another.

As a result, when they argue early in the book, and she tells him 'Why don't you just die?', it's not too much of a surprise when he does just that. The rest of the story involves her coming to grips with the guilt that she inevitably feels over this unfortunate chain of events -- and her struggle to understand (and recognize) her own emotions and feelings on love and death.

The scenes mentioned in another review involving detailed descriptions of embalming procedures didn't offend or disgust me as much as they made me wonder why they were there at all -- perhaps to give some authenticity to one character's line of work (a funeral director). He provides a somewhat believable catalyst for the widow's emotional and intelluctual struggle with her own demons, and works on a few of his own in the process -- but I was left with the feeling that the novel could have been much more effective (and interesting) if it were quite a bit shorter.

I finished Life After Death just before September 11th and on the 13th I began reding A Death in the Family. Together these books provided a balm... the kind of balm one uses to bandage an injury and go on however painful going on is. There has never been a time when understanding human emotion,loss and the will to go on has been more important. Life After Death is jarring and it is smart. It will make you tough. A Death in the Family is tender and insightful. It will help you find a balance. We need what these books provide.

This is a engrossing, totally surprising novel. Who'd expect to find this dark humor married to such a depth of feeling? LIFE AFTER DEATH is peopled by strong characters, particularly Boyd, the central character whose heart is broken by the death of her husband, and restored -- at least partially -- by the strength she finds to do the right and difficult thing in her work as a doctor. Funny, heartbreaking, instructive and haunting all at once -- a terrific book about the ways we think about love and death.

This book is amazing. The plot is unusual, the sort of thing no one writes about, and everything is wonderfully described. (Despite the not extremely clear description of the caves)

This book gives new meaning to the word "pretentious." A contrived plot and clichéd characters make serious readers wonder: How did this book find a publisher?