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kamiethefrog's review against another edition
3.0
How does one write about the decomposition of the body without completely disgusting you? Ask Jim Crace! Or better yet just read this book.
Very interesting. Very unique. very not what I was expecting.
I enjoyed the writing more than the actual plot. Which is weird, at least for me.
Very interesting. Very unique. very not what I was expecting.
I enjoyed the writing more than the actual plot. Which is weird, at least for me.
daizan10's review against another edition
3.0
Such a talented writer
Jim Grace is undoubtedly one of the best writers i ever read. He has a gift with words, for painting the most vivid and deep images in your mind often using original and unexpected analogies and similes. I just wish, in this case he had chosen to use those talents to tell a more interesting story. Both the main characters are dull and we send a massive amount of time reading descriptions of decaying bodies. At times you feel yourself being carried away by the strength of the writing, but then there is another chapter about the bodies state. Maybe it just isn't my genre. I've read pest house and Quarentine and enjoyed them both, but didn't get on with this at all. Thank God it was short!
Jim Grace is undoubtedly one of the best writers i ever read. He has a gift with words, for painting the most vivid and deep images in your mind often using original and unexpected analogies and similes. I just wish, in this case he had chosen to use those talents to tell a more interesting story. Both the main characters are dull and we send a massive amount of time reading descriptions of decaying bodies. At times you feel yourself being carried away by the strength of the writing, but then there is another chapter about the bodies state. Maybe it just isn't my genre. I've read pest house and Quarentine and enjoyed them both, but didn't get on with this at all. Thank God it was short!
sharonbakar's review against another edition
4.0
4.5
An unflinching novel about death told through the story of Joseph and Celice, murdered as they return to Baritone Bay, thirty years as they met there as students. There's a beautifully observed accumulation of details, and even when the descriptions (of how the body decays) are pretty grisly, Crace creates poetry on the page.
The book has been sitting on my t-b-r shelf for years since I bought it cheaply at a second-hand book sale.
An unflinching novel about death told through the story of Joseph and Celice, murdered as they return to Baritone Bay, thirty years as they met there as students. There's a beautifully observed accumulation of details, and even when the descriptions (of how the body decays) are pretty grisly, Crace creates poetry on the page.
The book has been sitting on my t-b-r shelf for years since I bought it cheaply at a second-hand book sale.
yash590's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The book is about death - not in the romantic poetic sense. Although parts of it read like poetry, it is visceral in its description. It does not glorify death nor does it undermine death. It provides a description of death in its most physical form.
May be because of this, the tragedy of death does not present itself outright at the beginning of the novel. It only manifests towards the latter half of the novel, once we get to know the lives behind the deaths.
The novel starts off good, but towards the half way point I felt it to be a little boring, when the daughter's character was introduced. However, the discussion on death and the discussion on the effect of death on the daughter were impactful.
In multiple instances, the author mentions that death does not automatically and immediately instill grief. The idea of death readily brings grief but the actuality of death does not. When John and Celice die, Syl looks forward to the attention that she may receive. And when the daughter finds that her parents may be dead, she feels euphoric - "The closest family, the principal mourners are oddly happy with themselves, and stirred. Their hearts – and social niceties – may call for frenzies of despair, an ululating epilepsy, collapse, hysteria, but their brains dispense instead a cocktail of euphoric chemicals to bolster them against the shock and rage. Adrenalin cannot discriminate." "She went again into her mother’s room, pulled back the sheets and stared at the bed, looking for the trigger of some tears. She opened all the cupboards and the drawers, spread a hand across her mother’s underclothes, inspected the unopened packet of cigarettes she found buried underneath, picked up her combs and necklaces, sniffed the cordite smell of hair on her brush, stared at the wedding photograph. But she felt nothing."
A dark book but one that tries to make the concept of death, at once, familiar and final in a much better way than any platitude.
May be because of this, the tragedy of death does not present itself outright at the beginning of the novel. It only manifests towards the latter half of the novel, once we get to know the lives behind the deaths.
The novel starts off good, but towards the half way point I felt it to be a little boring, when the daughter's character was introduced. However, the discussion on death and the discussion on the effect of death on the daughter were impactful.
In multiple instances, the author mentions that death does not automatically and immediately instill grief. The idea of death readily brings grief but the actuality of death does not. When John and Celice die, Syl looks forward to the attention that she may receive. And when the daughter finds that her parents may be dead, she feels euphoric - "The closest family, the principal mourners are oddly happy with themselves, and stirred. Their hearts – and social niceties – may call for frenzies of despair, an ululating epilepsy, collapse, hysteria, but their brains dispense instead a cocktail of euphoric chemicals to bolster them against the shock and rage. Adrenalin cannot discriminate." "She went again into her mother’s room, pulled back the sheets and stared at the bed, looking for the trigger of some tears. She opened all the cupboards and the drawers, spread a hand across her mother’s underclothes, inspected the unopened packet of cigarettes she found buried underneath, picked up her combs and necklaces, sniffed the cordite smell of hair on her brush, stared at the wedding photograph. But she felt nothing."
A dark book but one that tries to make the concept of death, at once, familiar and final in a much better way than any platitude.
sphfane's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Plot is out of order/ skips around, very slow, boring af
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
mairispaceship's review
3.0
This was a very tricky book to review (and even trickier to sort it onto a shelf ... Does it fit in my "joy of every day life" shelf when it's a book about death?). When all was said and done though, I decided to give it a 3 stars.
Being Dead is a story about, well, death. Celice and Joseph are a late middle-aged couple that meet their untimely demise during a trip to the beach. Baritone Bay - the place they first met, a place of immense love, nature and also (if the theme of the book wasn't a giveaway), a lot of death.
It's a great example of a story where the setting is a main character. Even though Baritone Bay is described as a beautiful, sunny place .. There is such tension and unease in every line. The location is a character unto itself and a very unforgiving character at that.
... But speaking of the characters, that's likely where my review loses a star. All the men in the book are written as weak, meek, and quiet. The women by contrast are all strong - they're all hyper sexualised, and bordering manic pixie dream girl personalities. I really do mean all of them and to me this jarred with the sensitivity of the rest of the book.
However, take this with a pinch of salt. I don't know if this is a huge issue, because the book isn't so much about the characters as it is about a specific, fixed point in time. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that the author is a good one. I really enjoyed "Being Dead", it evokes such strong emotions and questions about life, death, peace. Life, in the end, comes full circle. Jim Crace has nailed it.
Being Dead is a story about, well, death. Celice and Joseph are a late middle-aged couple that meet their untimely demise during a trip to the beach. Baritone Bay - the place they first met, a place of immense love, nature and also (if the theme of the book wasn't a giveaway), a lot of death.
It's a great example of a story where the setting is a main character. Even though Baritone Bay is described as a beautiful, sunny place .. There is such tension and unease in every line. The location is a character unto itself and a very unforgiving character at that.
... But speaking of the characters, that's likely where my review loses a star. All the men in the book are written as weak, meek, and quiet. The women by contrast are all strong - they're all hyper sexualised, and bordering manic pixie dream girl personalities. I really do mean all of them and to me this jarred with the sensitivity of the rest of the book.
However, take this with a pinch of salt. I don't know if this is a huge issue, because the book isn't so much about the characters as it is about a specific, fixed point in time. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that the author is a good one. I really enjoyed "Being Dead", it evokes such strong emotions and questions about life, death, peace. Life, in the end, comes full circle. Jim Crace has nailed it.
an_enthusiastic_reader's review against another edition
3.0
Well-written. Beautifully captures the physical aspects of life and death. But too clinical for me to care about its characters.