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Being Dead
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Plot Summary of Being Dead
"This book is the story of two married scientists who are murdered on a beach in Canada. The characters are dead at the start of the book and the author traces the decay of their physical bodies as well as looking back at their lives. The story also includes their only daughter as she deals with her parents' sudden passing."
Deidre Woollard, Resident Scholar

"The last moments of life for Joseph and Celice were brutal and violent, bludgeoned by an unknown assailant armed with a large chunk of granite. They had just finished making love on the beach not far from where they had courted nearly thirty years before as young and energetic zoology students. Their bodies will lay undiscovered for many days slowly decomposing, changing in shape, texture, and color, all the while falling prey to small scavengers and being abused by the elements.

Looking back in time to the week the couple first met, marred by a horrible tragedy, as the humble coastal shack that six university students were housed in while doing their zoology research catches fire, killing one of their fellow students. Back to the present, Joseph is initially missed at his work, so rebellious, non-conformist daughter Syl, is summoned to try and locate the now long overdue couple. As Syl hurries back to her childhood home, she expects her estranged parents will harangue her about her lifestyle choices resulting in an unpleasant encounter. En route she enlists the aid of a taxi driver named Geo, paying him with sex in lieu of cash. Her emotions vary as the search for her parents takes her from the hospital, to the morgue, and finally to Baritone Bay were her parents bodies are waiting to be identified."

David Fletcher, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Being Dead
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - depressed
Time/era of story - present (2000-2010)
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Struggle over - dying
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - scientist
Age: - 40's-50's
Eccentric/Mental Yes
Eccentric: - eccentric
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American) - Canadian (Aboot!)
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - average physique - healthy but a geeky weakling

Main Adversary
Identity: - none - Male
Profession/status: - killer
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a little/some
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 7 ()
The Americas (not US): Yes
The Americas: - Canada
Water? Yes
Misc setting - scientific labs

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - explicit references to deaths
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references - descript of kissing - actual description of hetero sex - descript. of nude males (the big P)
Unusual Style: - a lot of flashback and forwards - a lot of stream of consciousness - No single main character?
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog - little dialog
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The Walled Garden by Catherine Dunne
Visits from the Drowned Girl by Steven Sherrill


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Jim Crace Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
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