Title: Death on Earth(?)
Product review: There's an odd stillness to this book -- the stillness of bodies decaying on beach? It's a fascinating experiment where what happens to the main characters' bodies after death is often more intriguing than what happens to them while alive. Crace is deft at painting the psyches of the long-married couple, but less sure and original when he moves their rebellious daughter to the center of his canvas. Her tale seems rote, tacked on, irritating. John Crowley has pointed out in his NY Times review that many of the curious but convincing historical and zoological details -- for example, the 'quivering' tradition, and the 'sprayhoppers' to whom the husband has devoted his scientific career -- seem to have been made up out of whole cloth by Crace. (Go ahead, try to find 'sprayhoppers' in any online or print resource.) This might have subtly helped add to the rather otherwordly charm of this book.
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