I found I had a deep emotional connection to this book – it was extremely depressing in places, yet I couldn’t put it down. It’s a meandering look at one (dead) man’s life, and it’s really a meditation on the fear of death. Starts out with his concept of death as a child (amorphous), moves through his various bad decisions as an adult, but mostly explores his move from abject fear of death to eventual acceptance.

I loved one of the final scenes – he visits his parents’ graves, and comes upon the cemetary’s gravedigger, who explains to him in concrete terms exactly how graves are dug. I used to work at a cemetary, so I found this awfully familiar and, like the main character, strangely comforting.

It’s not about plot (so don’t expect much of one, and I can see why some have found it boring), but there is some lovely, lovely writing in this book. Well-crafted considering the somewhat shapeless (and huge) subject. I liked the short length/lack of chapters.

The story is interesting but I found the book generally boring. I just couldn’t really get into it and felt quite detached from the characters.

“There’s no remaking reality. Just take it as it comes. Hold your ground and take it as it comes.”

with that being said i thought this book was ok. it had it’s moments. great title. perfect and clever. i didn’t like how it jumped between first and second person. also, i’m thinking it was a novella- short and lacked chapters. i like chapters because i can easily break the book down. i tend to read a chapter or so at a time. did have convenient paragraph breaks though.