Among the Dead

by Michael Tolkin

Book Overview

Michael Tolkin's acclaimed second novel, Among the Dead, is an arresting examination of public and private grief in the wake of unspeakable disaster, a slow-burning tour de force of psychological... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688120830
• ISBN13: 9780688120832
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 273 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

This is more than we deserve

This is an easy book to admire, if a hard one to enjoy. More than any other contemporary satirist, Tolkin has the gift of implicating his readers in the sins of his nightmarish protagonists. "Among the Dead" ends with a vision that is as apt and Old Testament-flavoured as that which caps off Flannery O'Connor's short story "Revelation". The final message - "This is more than you deserve"- reveals the kind of grace that can only come from a terrifyingly clear-eyed and angry God. The novel as a whole has a very surreal quality. In a wonderful set piece on a train, we realize Frank Gale, through his grief, conceit and weakness, is somehow dreaming the world around him into existence; it's a neat technical trick that allows the author to use mood to stand in for plausible plot and character development. (Frank's interactions with the airline representatives and his brother Lowell are not always credible, but it hardly seems to matter.) The pacing is excellent and the suspense wire-taut, which makes this a quick, while still grueling, read. Weak-stomached readers should be warned: this novel has some of the most gut-churning, violent prose I've ever read.

Relentless

Tolkin is a true believer. This is the stuff that keeps me up at night.I wonder what the atrocious "Deep Impact" would have been like if they adhered to the tone of Tolkin's original idea. The book? Relentless.

You just don't get to read books like this

Maybe I'm a sicko, but I've read this book not once, not twice, but THREE times now. It's got a clever plot, a wonderful sense of foreboding and sadness that, mixed with the zany hilarity of it all, makes for a one-of-a-kind read. If you seek fun, fast, literary fiction, this is one you've got to pick up. I just wish this dude would write more novels.

Great lost book recommendation

This is the first book I recommend to people who looking for something cool to read that's off the beaten path. The second would be "A Scanner Darkly," and there's some sort of connection there, but I can't figure out exactly what it is. It should have been a bigger hit, but I must say I like having this be "my" book. Mr. Tolkin, if you're reading this, please write more!

A Satire So Biting,It Draws Blood.

The sense of humor displayed in this book is, as Harlan Ellison puts it, "so black it's ultraviolet." One can only assume that Tolkin is a man who has suffered many a dark night of the soul; he is one of the few writers whose characters are smart enough to realize the implications of their predicaments, and actually consider the long-term consequenses of their actions. Within this framework, he manages to explore the nature of guilt, the relentlessness of the media and how the public feeds off the tragedies of others...and often makes it laugh-out-loud funny. A throughly underappreciated novel from one of our most throughly underappreciated writers.