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Being Dead
Being Dead
Author: Jim Crace
'An extraordinarily moving love story' - "Observer". A couple lie naked in the dunes at Baritone Bay, at the spot where, almost thirty years before, they had first had sex as students. Nostalgia has sent Celice and Joseph back to their singing stretch of coast, but in the seeming calm of the afternoon they meet a brutal and unexpected fate - one...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780330516792
ISBN-10: 0330516795
Publication Date: 4/2/2010
Pages: 224
Rating:
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0 stars, based on 0 rating
Publisher: Picador
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

short-angry14 avatar reviewed Being Dead on + 79 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
This book was a very quick read for me. Tells the story of an older couple who are murdered in the sand dunes near where they first fell in love. Sounds like a love story gone wrong, where there will be many tears shed, right? Wrong! This book tells in minute detail the physical breakdown of the couples bodies, ie. weather, insects, crabs, flies and general decomposition of corpses. Totally not a love story...well, maybe in a sick way, as they died with the husband still clutching her leg. Good book, but definitely NOT a sweet love story.
GVvicki avatar reviewed Being Dead on
Helpful Score: 3
This is a hauntingly beautiful novel that keeps popping up in my mind even though it's been a couple years since I read it. Well written and speaks to the soul.
reviewed Being Dead on + 65 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
It is scary to think just how long a person can be missing, decomposing and soon completely disappear before anyone notices.
woot avatar reviewed Being Dead on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I really liked this book, but I'm sure it isn't for everyone. The author describes the physical process of 2 human bodies as they decay after death. This description is mixed in with stories about some of the events that occurred before their death. There is a bit of a mystery for a while about how the pople died, but the basic theme seems to be that people are mistaken when they assign meaning and cause to their life's events. A very thought provoking book.
MartieKr avatar reviewed Being Dead on + 72 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I was a little disappointed with this one. A little too graphic for my tastes.
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reviewed Being Dead on + 105 more book reviews
This book starts with the sudden death of a couple and then alternates chapters moving backwards and forwards in time to show the chain of events that led to their death, and the final evolution of their bodies.

Primarily, it is a love story; it is not a drama or mystery. Poetic. Very biological (a lot of time is spent throughout the book on decomposition).

Great writing, but I didn't care for it.

2 stars out of 5
tamara avatar reviewed Being Dead on + 78 more book reviews
Great book, from a biological standpoint of death.