Short Review: The Brief History of the Dead

So 2011 wasn’t a great blogging year for me. I'll chalk it up to a combination of finishing my education and just plain laziness. 2012 is of course going to be completely different. Now I'll (hopefully) be more consistent. I'll start out by writing small reviews of books that I read, and enjoyed in 2011. Here's the first one:

KEVIN BROCKMEIER: THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD
I had never heard of Brockmeier when I stumbled onto The Brief History of the Dead. The cover drew me in, then there was the snow and a plot description that really peaked my interest. In this world when people die they go to another plane of existence much like the previous one. Here they go on existing as long as there is still someone alive who remembers them. This might be family, but could also be a doorman who held the door open. When there is no more people alive who's been touched by that person's existence, they disappear from that plane. No one knows where to. The book follows several people both on this other plane and live ones. When an epidemic starts decimating the Earth's population, people start disappearing from the next plane at alarming rates leaving empty houses everywhere.

This is really a philosophical pondering wrapped in a beautifully written story. By far one of the most compelling concepts of an afterlife I've encountered. Brockmeier is in complete command of his ideas and the best way in which to present them. It is also important to point out that this does not feel like a religious book. The afterlife presented here bears no resemblance to the religious concepts from the Bible. This is just a magnificent theory of what might happen.

The characters are well defined and all seem very real and true to a core that might not be completely laid bare in the text but must be so in Brockmeier's imagination. When things start progressing and the catastrophe on Earth unfolds there's a true sense of danger not only for the living but for the already dead.

The pace of the book is very calm and not at any point veering towards the sensational or corny. This is moody, and sometimes heartbreaking storytelling at its very finest.