There is a city where those who have died live on for as long as someone still alive on earth can remember them. This is the conceit behind Kevin Brockmeier's new novel The Brief History of the Dead. The novel is set in a not-too-distant-future where terrorist warnings are a daily, glossed over event and Coca Cola ad-campaigns inexplicably parody anthrax mailings and a plague is quickly wiping out mankind. This 'City' where the dead exist is rapidly emptying as the plague wipes out more and more of the world's population, as fewer people are left to remember them.
Laura Byrd, who is in Antarctica on a research mission and cut-off from the rest of the world (and the plague), is at the center of the story. She's only beginning to wonder why she hasn't had contact from headquarters in some time and being alone in her station is making her a little stir-crazy. Her research partners ventured out for another station nearby and haven't returned and now she's faced with the decision to leave her camp in search of them or remain where she is until the food runs out. Luckily for the sake of the narrative, she decides to go forth in search of her partners, setting in motion a series of adventures that cause her to recall so many of the memories that begin to connect her to all the people left in the City.
The Brief History of the Dead is a fantastic statement on the mercurial nature of memory. As the dead in the City begin to realize they all have one person connecting them Laura Byrd turns over in her mind all the people she's known in her life and the seemingly inconsequential encounters she's had with such a large number of people. The memories pile up as her attempt to brave the tundra reaches its inevitable conclusion. Who and what she remembers and why define Laura Byrd and because the inhabitants of the City are depending upon her memory to keep their world intact, her memories start to define their existence as well.
Brockmeier creates very believable pictures of both the City and Laura Byrd's trek through the arctic. He stumbles a bit here and there with digressions and side stories that are ultimately unnecessary. But what doesn't work isn't uninteresting- just extra padding and what works really works. The details and rules of the City are related and revealed with perfect timing. The gravity between Laura Byrd and the City's inhabitants, while always apparent, becomes heavier with an emotional resonance that works surprisingly well through to the end, as their separate orbits begin to collide.
