The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

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The Brief History of the Dead

by Kevin Brockmeier

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Conversations
1,430	104	2,564	(3.64)	96

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▾Book information

Info:	John Murray (2007), Paperback, 272 pages
Member:	Nic_C
Collections:	Your library	Rating:
Tags:	TBR shelves, 2007 acquisitions

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GirlMisanthrope recommends The Mercy of Thin Air: A Novel by Ronlyn Domingue
FFortuna recommends The Truth About Celia by Kevin Brockmeier

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▾Member reviews

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Showing 1-5 of 104 (next | show all)

An unforgettable page-turner that doesn't fit neatly into any category of fiction. (

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iBeth | Dec 30, 2009 |

Very much a "premise" book, but much more affecting than one would expect. (

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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... (

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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. (

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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 |

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Series (with order)

Canonical Title

The Brief History of the Dead

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Awards and honors

PEN-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)

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

Whitehead, 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 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.)

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (3)

File:BriefHistoryOfThe Dead.jpg

Kevin Brockmeier

The Brief History of the Dead

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0375423699, Hardcover)

“Remember me when I’m gone”
just took on a whole new meaning.

The City is inhabited by the recently departed, who reside there only as long as they remain in the memories of the living. Among the current residents of this afterlife are Luka Sims, who prints the only newspaper in the City, with news from the other side; Coleman Kinzler, a vagrant who speaks the cautionary words of God; and Marion and Phillip Byrd, who find themselves falling in love again after decades of marriage.

On Earth, Laura Byrd is trapped by extreme weather in an Antarctic research station. She’s alone and unable to contact the outside world: her radio is down and the power is failing. She’s running out of supplies as quickly as she’s running out of time.

Kevin Brockmeier interweaves these two stories in a spellbinding tale of human connections across boundaries of all kinds. The Brief History of the Dead is the work of a remarkably gifted writer.

(retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:03:44 -0500)

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