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A review by mbenzz
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
3.0
It's hard for me to put into words exactly how I feel about this book. I loved the first half. The explanation of The City and the people that made it up was interesting to read about. I even enjoyed the dual narrative! Whenever I come across dual narratives, I generally prefer one over the other and tend to trudge through the one I don't like, but both of these were interesting and kept me engaged.
However, the second half of the book became muddled in....foggy bizarreness. I don't quite know how to say what I mean. Just that some of the chapters became a little much. Like they were trying to be deep and meaningful, but for me, they became long and tedious. Like the chapter about the guy wearing the cardboard Jesus signs numbering off the days. I have no clue what any of that was about. And the final Laura chapter, detailing her journey, it was like reading about someone's crazy LSD trip.
The ending left me annoyed and incredibly unsatisfied. I finished it in bed this morning when I woke up and upon completing it just rolled over and stared at the ceiling thinking...W...T...F.
I struggled with how to rate this because the first half of the book was definitely 4-5 stars, but the second half was more like 2, so I settled in the middle and am giving it 3 stars. Not sure I would recommend this to anyone I know because it's a strange little book, but it wasn't a terrible read. I imagine this will be quite forgettable for me.
However, the second half of the book became muddled in....foggy bizarreness. I don't quite know how to say what I mean. Just that some of the chapters became a little much. Like they were trying to be deep and meaningful, but for me, they became long and tedious. Like the chapter about the guy wearing the cardboard Jesus signs numbering off the days. I have no clue what any of that was about. And the final Laura chapter, detailing her journey, it was like reading about someone's crazy LSD trip.
The ending left me annoyed and incredibly unsatisfied. I finished it in bed this morning when I woke up and upon completing it just rolled over and stared at the ceiling thinking...W...T...F.
I struggled with how to rate this because the first half of the book was definitely 4-5 stars, but the second half was more like 2, so I settled in the middle and am giving it 3 stars. Not sure I would recommend this to anyone I know because it's a strange little book, but it wasn't a terrible read. I imagine this will be quite forgettable for me.