The Brief History of the Dead

After reading this book for Literacy Club, this is what I have to say.

The book is BORING!

I hate to give out spoilers in my reviews, but seriously, this book HAS no spoilers.

The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier is about a city in which the dead go to after they...um..die. If their memory lives in a living person from Earth, they stay in the city. However, if no living person on earth remembers them, then____ (insert whatever you want; I don't recall the author clarifying this). The story centers on Laura Byrd who, with two other Coca Cola employees who are apparently sent to Antarctica to get "fresh water." It's more of a publicity stunt since the whole world is having some water problem (or something like that). Eventually Laura is isolated and is starting to believe she is the last person alive on Earth. Meanwhile, people in the City of the Dead are trying to recall when they met Laura and their past experiences on Earth.

SPOILERS BEGIN:

The book drags and drags on. There are many chapters with no dialogue at all. It seems the author had an idea with great potential, but he had no idea how to wrap it up. The ending is ambiguous and it's unclear whether Laura survives or not.

SPOILERS END

My opinion: I couldn't care less if Brockmeier killed off all the characters. In my opinon, the characters were two-dimensional and uninteresting. It was interesting how their stories were connected though; however, that didn't make up for the extreme drag and bore of the novel.

Rating: 1/5 stars