A review of "Everyman" — 1 year ago
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.
