"The Brief History of the Dead"

The Brief History of the Dead: A Novel (Kevin Brockmeier)

This book is a big disappointment, in the same manner as "The City & The City" - the author has an interesting idea, which is unfortunately all the author has. In this case, the author has a city where the living dead are held - those who someone alive remembers - until they pass into true death when nobody left alive remembers them. And what does the author do with this idea? Nothing; We fart around watching people wander around the city, then we cut to another plot where a researcher at the south pole wanders around the south pole. I had to repress the urge to keep going "Yeah?" and "And?" while reading the book, then started skipping pages, then just quit reading it. I'm willing to forgive the fantastical setting (the author has a virus killing just about everyone in the world, even submarine crews, etc.) if there's a good story, but this is just meandering bullshit.

Grade: D-