Jim Crace: BEING DEAD

Brilliant, mesmering and engrossing: these are only three of possible adjectives that I can label this National Book Critics Circle winner.

The book begins with a violent murder. Thirty years before another tragedy occurred in the same area the present murder happens. They were having their first sex the time of the first tragedy. They were making love for the last time when the second tragedy struck them. The author, Jim Crace, however, ironically writes, in between, about the good things about life and living as he writes insights about being dead.

The prose is wonderful. Think about writing the biochemistry of death in a literary way. The style is effective. The book is indeed a feat thus highly recommended.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

{13 February 2010}