The Brief History of the Dead

Earlier this week I finished reading “The Brief History of the Dead: A novel” by Kevin Brockmeier and this is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting books I’ve read this year. Why? Because it made me wonder and I like that….a lot. This isn’t going to be a book review but I have to tell you a little about the book or else you won’t understand why it made me think about the things I thought about. (is that still a sentence? I am not quite sure ;))

Anyway, this is how the story goes. Laura Byrd, a Coca Cola researcher, is stranded and in trouble. Three weeks ago she and her friends found themselves alone in one of the coldest, most remote places on earth, the Antarctic. Her friends set out in search of help, and now Laura realises that they are not coming back. So she gathers her remaining supplies and sets out on an extraordinary journey. Meanwhile in another city, more and more people arrive every day. Each new arrival has a different story to tell, but their accounts have one thing in common - it was their final journey. For this is 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 have also died, or until they are forgotten. Strangely enough over half of them have known Laura Byrd. This is a spellbinding story about our lives, loves- about our place in the world, our connections with each other, and what happens to us all after our deaths

First of all: I don’t believe in heaven or hell or any form of afterlife. In my opinion, you have to enjoy this life and make the most of it. Who knows, there might be nothing else and I believe it would be a waste if you spend your life hoping for something that might not exist. Why hope for a maybe when you have something genuine right now.
But it is still kind of fun to wonder about the possibilities every now and then. What if there was something like the city of the dead after this (the land of the living). In the book the city of the dead is much like any ordinary city. There are houses, apartment buildings, offices, shops, libraries, newspapers, movies, books, music (no radio and TV though), restaurants, bikes (no cars though), some people work (others don’t), the weather changes, there are food and beverages, and people go out and enjoy themselves. So it is not so different from the life we live right now, and it certainly is nothing like heaven or hell. What makes the city even more interesting however is the fact that it not only expands to cope with the many arrivals, it also diminish when a lot of the people vanish all of a sudden. Funnily enough, the people who stay in the city of dead start to wonder about all those vanishing people. They even start to speculate about an after-afterlife and maybe afterlives. But if that was true, how many lives would we have then…..7? Or 9 just like a cat? Or would the next step be heaven or hell?

Anyhow, this book gave me a lot to think about. I still believe there is no afterlife but it was fun to fantasize about it though. It was a bit like playing Sims, you can create and live in your own little fantasy world. It also made me think about hope, the hope that we will not soon be forgotten after we die. It would be nice to achieve some form of immortality through the generations. But will people remember us? How many people will remember us? What will we be remembered for? And for how long? Questions, questions, questions!! :)
This book also made me think of all the people I’ve lost over the years: my Dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, friends and acquaintances and colleagues. It would be nice if they were happily together in a place like the city of dead, but I guess they aren’t. However I don’t believe they are absolutely dead yet. People are alive as long as they are remembered. They are only dead when people stop talking about them. And I think that that’s the book's real message somehow. It makes no difference what your believes are, there are two worlds out there, a) the here and now (the living) and b) the not here and now (the dead). Luckily there is a bridge between them…….our memories!!