Being Dead

An artfully written and constructed book. However, the main characters (Joseph and Celice--the dead folks of the title) were such unpleasant people that I didn't feel too much sympathy for their plight.

Jim Crace writes of the bodies' physical decomposition with clinical detail, which fits Joseph and Celice's careers as scientists. Through alternating chapters, Crace describes the beginning and end of their lives together (how they met as students, and their last morning). Things perked up for me when their daughter, Syl, made her appearance at about the halfway point.

An artfully written and constructed book. However, the main characters (Joseph and Celice--the dead folks of the title) were such unpleasant people that I didn't feel too much sympathy for their plight.

Jim Crace writes of the bodies' physical decomposition with clinical detail, which fits Joseph and Celice's careers as scientists. Through alternating chapters, Crace describes the beginning and end of their lives together (how they met as students, and their last morning). Things perked up for me when their daughter, Syl, made her appearance at about the halfway point.