Death: A LifeGeorge Pendle
Three Rivers (Crown), Sep 2008
ISBN: 978-0-307395603
The title of Death: A Life is pretty straightforward in terms of summing up the book. Death travels from Hell to Earth, where God places him in charge of gathering souls to send on to the afterlife. Death finds a satisfying eternity with this never-ending job, constantly conversing with the souls he collects. But after a while, Death begins to mull over what it would be like to have a Life, especially after an enigmatic woman named Maud keeps being reincarnated on Earth and wooing Death into killing her. The journey that Death takes is a long one, and he soon finds himself faced with an ironic dilemma which threatens his existence.
Pendle's humor can be very funny, but it can also waver into almost non-existence. The satire of religion and society is riveting and theatrical, always in the background but rarely rearing outwardly with a desperation to get the message out. The comedy is also very subtle, and it is this slight hint at jokes that the reader will laugh the most at. The first half of the book is rife with witty wordplay and Biblical gags, but once the reader gets into the more serious side of the book's plot, the humor starts to slip. It's a minor disappointment, since the beginning of the novel was so quick to jump into the comedy. Yet the book never really suffers from corny jokes or ruthless sarcasm; everything has its place in the novel without coming off as over-reaching boundaries.
This is Final Destination from the Grim Reaper's point of view, and less gruesome at that, succeeding more at great storytelling than humor. Without becoming misanthropic, Pendle creates a realistic fictional world that utilizes historical and biblical backgrounds to bring his characters to life, human or fantastical. The novel becomes a sort of handbook for thinking about the afterlife, and while fictional, it does give a different perspective on what it means to die, and what happens to our souls. New age thinking, or just adaptations on a theme? Either way, Pendle shows us there is a point to our lives, and that they are worth living. So go out and live them, and while you're at it, read this book.
