The Brief History of the Dead - Kevin Brockmeier

With an interesting and original premise, The Brief History of the Dead initially offers the reader a bold and imaginative read. It tells the story a place between Earth and Heaven, a purgatory known only as ‘The City’. This purgatory, however, is unlike many others in the world of fiction. The inhabitants are not waiting for an ascent to a better place; they are instead picking up where they left off after their Earth deaths.

Some treat this as a chance to carrying on living life as they had on Earth, albeit without taking things for granted. Others, however, treat this purgatory as a chance to abuse the situation which they find themselves in. It is believed by the inhabitants that their existence in purgatory is sustained by the memories of the loved ones that they left behind on Earth. However, many inhabitants of The City start to temporarily disappear as Earth life is extinguished by the rapid spread of a virus known as ‘the blinks’, named so because of the first of its symptoms.

The story of ‘The City’ is intricately entwined with the story of Laura, seemingly the last person left on Earth, untouched by the virus. Stranded and isolated in Antarctica, on a mission funded by Coca-Cola, Laura is plagued by loneliness, if not the deadly virus which has wiped out the rest of her species. As news of Laura spreads to The City, its inhabitants become more and more convinced that Laura’s existence on Earth is what sustains their existence in purgatory.

Whilst Brockmeier’s concept is original, he does not possess the ability to uphold the imagination and promise of the first chapters through to the predictable and inevitable conclusion. Brockmeier’s prose is lyrical throughout, but after a while the character of Laura and her musings become tired and tedious. As such, one can’t help but feel let down by The Brief History of the Dead, a novel which initially grabs the reader strongly but slowly and gradually loosens its grip until the reader is left to drift away.