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The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
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The Brief History of the Dead

by Kevin Brockmeier

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Very much a "premise" book, but much more affecting than one would expect. ( )
  KimLarae | Oct 14, 2009 |
Looking back, this was one of my two favorite reads of 2007. I liked the premise, and I especially liked the City and how people lived in it. It was just reassuring.

I agree that the real-world Antarctica parts weren't as interesting, not least because the character wasn't particularly distinctive, but I could live with that.

I'm glad I didn't read any reviews before I bought this. I think they all gave away too much of the plot. I liked not knowing what was going to happen.

I bought the book because I'd read the first chapter in the New Yorker. You can read it too : http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003... ( )
  kristenn | Oct 7, 2009 |
Beautiful story. The dual point of view was a nice touch. It was a real quick read...finished it in one night. ( )
  milk_toast | Sep 13, 2009 |
Story of the end ofthe world. Paralllel worlds one in which those that have died but live on this world since someone truly still living has a memory of them and the other the planet aerth where an epidemic is occurring due to a a toxic virus that has been spreadthrough Coca-cola. The story is of a woman in Antartica and her struggle to survive. ( )
  kimoqt | Aug 20, 2009 |
This is a remarkable novel, speculating to a great deal on how the afterlife might happen. People live in a rather interesting city, with people coming in from live, and disappearing when their last acquantance dies on earth. This story, almost reverie, perhaps religious, is interspersed with the survival of Laura in the Antarctic. There is even a final consummation of sorts, but not reflective of most known religious traditions.

The conceit of the novel is that there is a final plague on earth and then you're left with a enigmatic centerpoint. ( )
2 vote vpfluke | Jul 31, 2009 |
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Many African societies divide humans into three categories: those still alive on earth, the sasha, and the zamani. The recently departed whose time on earth overlapped with people still here are the sasha, the living-dead. They are not wholly dead for they still live in the memories of the living who can call them to mind, create their likeness in art, and bring them to life in anecdote. When the last person to know an ancestor dies, that ancestor leaves the sasha for the zamani, the dead. As generalized ancestors, the zamani are not forgotten but revered. Many ... can be recalled by name. But they are not the living dead. There is a difference.

-- James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me
Dedication
For My Dad
First words
When the blind man arrived in the city, he claimed that he had traveled across a desert of living sand.
Quotations
There was a flaw at the heart of their discussion, the blind man realized. They were mistaking the spirit for the soul. Many people tended to use the words casually, interchangeably, as though there was no difference at all between them, but the spirit and the soul were not the same thing. The body was the material component of a person. The soul was the nonmaterial component. The spirit was simply the connecting line.
Not forever, but long enough.
. . . orchardlike rows of the box springs . . .
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Canonical titleThe Brief History of the Dead
Original publication date2006
People/CharactersLaura Byrd, Luka Sims
Important placesAntarctica
Awards and honorsPEN-USA Award (Fiction, 2007), Borders Original Voices (2007), Book Sense Book of the Year (2007.7 | Adult Fiction Honor Book, 2007), Young Lions Fiction Award finalist (2007)
EpigraphMany African societies divide humans into three categories: those still alive on earth, the sasha, and the zamani. The recently departed whose time on earth overlapped with people still here are the sasha, the living-dead. ... (show all)
DedicationFor My Dad
First wordsWhen the blind man arrived in the city, he claimed that he had traveled across a desert of living sand.
QuotationsThere was a flaw at the heart of their discussion, the blind man realized. They were mistaking the spirit for the soul. Many people tended to use the words casually, interchangeably, as though there was no difference at all... (show all)
Last words(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
BlurbersWhitehead, Colson, author of The Colossus of New York (The Brief History of the Dead is a brilliant high-wire act, at turns terrifying, wise, and humane. Kevin Brockmeier builds an intricate labyrinth, then guides us through with wit and aplomb.); Kevin Baker, author of Paradise Alley (Kevin Brockmeier's The Brief History of the Dead is moving and disquieting, a "futuristic" novel that is really an elegy for how we live now.)
Book description

Amazon.com Download Description (ISBN 0719568307, Paperback)

Kevin Brockmeier is the author of The Truth About Celia, Things That Fall from the Sky, and two children’s novels, City of Names and Grooves: A Kind of Mystery. His stories have appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Georgia Review, The Best American Short Stories, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and multiple editions of the O. Henry Prize Stories anthology. He is the recipient of a Nelson Algren Award, an Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award, a James Michener—Paul Engle Fellowship, three O. Henry Awards—one of which was a first prize—and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. He has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.


From the Hardcover edition.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:04 -0400)

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