The Rif Raff Book Club met Tuesday January 29th for the January book selection Being Dead by Jim Crace at a book member's house in Berwyn Illinois.

Being Dead by Jim Crace

This book offered a different look at the birth to death theme. The author is a talented writer that used very small character details to bring the fullness of the work together in a very short book. Celice's red nail polish, her white roots that drove the killer to his act. The use of very clinical processes to contrast with everyday existence was something I both enjoyed and felt nauseous from. Examples include all the descriptions on the beach with the insects and plant life tied to the reason the couple was back on the beach for resolution of different human emotions. Having the characters in the zoology field gave the author license to use the science in a way that supported his technique. There was little humor here, although I think the writer wanted to lighten up the book in the middle at the morgue. No doubt that would seem a strange way to lighten the text, but it worked for this book. The guy working the second shift provided a small smile. Overall I liked the book for a couple of reasons. It was a look at the world you would never have imagined and it gave proof to the idea of living each day to the fullest because you only get one time around. For me the book provided a complex view of the mundane matters of the world. I think Jim Crace summed it up in the words... LIVE LOUD LIVE WIDE LIVE TALL

The style of this book reminded me very much of While I Was Gone by Sue Miller. The past present storytelling, the university setting, the murder, all elements found in Ms. Millers book. The time switching from present to past was an interesting vehicle in which to tell the story of how this miserable, self important female zoologist and her mamby pamby husband met, "courted" and married to a rather cerebral, yet mundane academic life. I was pleased the author took this approach as I was finding it hard to fathom a complete novel about two dead bodies rotting on a beach. The sub-plot of their angry daughter and her ultimate discovery of her parents fate provided a much needed jolt to the story. However, Mr. Crace was able to use his prose in such a way that he made the process of a body decomposing sound lovely. Not necessarily one I would recommend to others, but it did make for a nice diversion while pedaling at the health club.