The Brief History of the Dead: A novel

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With the publishing industry fixating on the next DaVinci Code, alphabetical mysteries, and serial killers, it's a treat to find a truly original young writer. And Brockmeier is no flash in the pan, either; He's won the O. Henry Award, the Nelson Algren Award, An Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.

I would imagine some readers thought Brockmeier was riding on the coattails of the LOVELY BONES, but that's just not the case. Brockmeier doles out equal portions of pessimism and optimism, and just when you think you've got this pitcher figured out he throws you a knuckleball.

The novel alternates between the adventures of Laura Byrd, a Coca Cola researcher stranded in the Antarctic, and the City of the Dead. The earth has been decimated by a virus called "The Blinks." Brockmeier's notion of an afterlife is a way station where people must stay until people whom they have known on earth have also died. Over half of them have known Laura Byrd.

The people who live in the City of the Dead are not ghosts. They will remind you of your next-door neighbors. They get up, have breakfast, and go to work, just like normal people. They appear to have corporal bodies. One of the characters, the Blind Man, wonders about this. He has a theory about the difference between the spirit and the soul. He believes the spirit connects the body and the soul, and that when the spirit dies, we move on to the next life.

Parts of the novel are definitely satirical. There's a Coca Cola executive who's still trying to cover-up Coca Cola's connection to the Blinks for one thing. It can also be funny as when one of the new arrivals, an avowed atheist, is thrilled that he was wrong. But was he? Brockmeier never really lets the reader gain a firm footing.

Brockmeier is smart enough to alternate between Laura story and the City of the Dead. Without Laura the novel might lose its credibility. When Laura strikes out on her "sledge" to find her co-researchers, Puckett and Joyce, we're hoping one of them is alive and immune and maybe Laura will start a new civilization. At least I was. But maybe that's the incurable romantic in me.

Some will find the ending a bit disappointing. It was metaphysical to say the least. It reminded me a lot of the ending in 2001 Space Odyssey. But I remember watching that movie with my dad, a farmer with his feet planted firmly on the ground, and he was just as transfixed as I was. You will be, too, if you give THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD a chance.
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