(Originally Published 2006, Paperback Edition 252 pages)
Mr. Brockmeier's novel reminded me of the late Ray Bradbury's work. The story occurs sometime in the not-too-distant future. A highly contagious, deadly virus called "The Blink" is rapidly spreading around the world. People are dying left and right. As if that's not enough of a downer, global warming is melting the polar ice caps and there's a Noah's Ark's worth of animals that are now extinct. The author mixes glimpses of various characters' lives and an element of the surreal. The story skips back and forth between the central character, Laura Byrd, and the dead inhabitants of the City which is a kind of way station before the dead move on to... whatever. It's never explained. The dead inhabitants, better known as the living-dead, only disappear and move on when the last person alive to know them dies. The reader is exposed to about a half dozen vignettes of various living-dead people. Though their daily lives are removed from disease and want, they still ruminate about their pasts. The chapters alternate between the living-dead and Laura Byrd. The lady is certainly stuck between a rock and a hard place. She's stranded alone in Antarctic and eventually sets out on an excruciating journey to find other people. It isn't a stroll through Disney World that's for sure.
The brief stories of each living-dead character as well as the living Laura Byrd are very well done. The author has an excellent ability to present each person as their own unique believable individual. The central theme to the book is about the people. I imagine many readers are going to be upset at how Mr. Brockmeier ended his work. The book is more an attempt at fleshing out different characters personalities and challenging the reader to see other people's viewpoints than it is an adventure with a satisfying conclusion. I guess it could be called an artsy-fartsy work. Mr. Brockmeier's short novel is very well written with a decidedly melancholy tone. It's thought-provoking but a little of a downer.
(Meyers - A few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent review #358)
No comments:
Post a Comment