Being Dead
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A National Book Critics Circle Award–winning novel and "a narrative of dazzling virtuosity" about love, death and the afterlife (Publishers Weekly).
Baritone Bay, mid-afternoon. A couple, naked, married almost thirty years, are lying murdered in the dunes.
"Their bodies had expired, but anyone could tell—just look at them—that Joseph and Celice were still devoted. For while his hand was touching her, curved round her shin, the couple seemed to have achieved that peace the world denies, a period of grace, defying even murder. Anyone who found them there, so wickedly disfigured, would nevertheless be bound to see that something of their love had survived the death of cells. The corpses were surrendered to the weather and the earth, but they were still a man and wife, quietly resting; flesh on flesh; dead, but not departed yet."
"A tour de force." —Library Journal
"A work of near-genius . . . [by] one of the most distinctive and talented writers of our time." —Literary Review
"Magnificent." —The Sunday Telegraph
"A brilliant, astonishing novel." —The Times (London)
Customer Reviews
Fascinating book
Having been a hospice nurse prior to retiring, I was curious when I saw this title. But death has long been among my interests, from well-before Kubler-Ross wrote her first book; I became an amateur thanatologist after reading it. Having read some of the squeamish reviews of this book almost discouraged me from reading, it fearing there would be gratuitous horror, but there were enough positive reviews that my curiosity won out. I loved it . . . that it doesn’t try to “make things presentable” as the police attempted to do for Syl, when she was asked to identify her parents' bodies—nor does it try to soften Syl or her response. I enjoyed meeting Joseph and Celice—an odd couple I came to like and to accept their bitter daughter. Mostly I appreciate the anecdotes about the rest of nature being nurtured by the couple's remains. They are not presented gratuitously . . . the author simply shows how death is life-affirming. Death is the gratitude we show the Earth by way of recycling our carbon atoms, among others. Don’t be afraid of this tender story; there's no morbidity to it. It's simply the straightforward facts. Death is part of every life. Without death there could be no evolution. Mondazy's Fish tells us it's the price we pay for being multicellular, at least I think he or it is telling us something like that.