From your own life, how many people do you really remember? That is the key question to Kevin Brockmeier's new book, "The Brief History of the Dead."
Initially, the average person doubts he or she can remember very many — say 25? But if you think a lot about it, and start writing the names down, you will find the number is much larger. Maybe as many as 50,000.
Or Brockmeier's memories of his childhood may simply be "sharper" than those of most people. "I do remember more than my brother does," Brockmeier said by phone from his apartment in Little Rock, Ark. "But I mine my own life for fiction, so maybe our approaches are just different."
He added that, "If you pay attention to the people you have known, there may be obscure threads of thought that bring some people to mind. All those you are capable of remembering are residing in your living memory."
The author is careful to differentiate between his own thoughts and the assertions found in the book. "The book suggests there is a greater meaning to little memories. I confess that as a human being I am drawn to that notion — that the memories of the people we carry with us matter to us in some important fashion."
Brockmeier proves his belief in memories by portraying characters who are constantly reminded of some youthful or childhood memories while busy doing other things of greater import. The memories may be good or bad, and they may have only the slightest connection to current life.
Many people harbor a fear that the onset of dementia will rob them of their memories. Even if that were to happen, said Brockmeier, "I think a person with Alzheimer's disease would be capable of being startled by certain memories."
Brockmeier's book posits the belief that memory connects the living with the dead. Those who die and experience "the crossing" inevitably remember many things about their lives on Earth — and they reside in this intermediate "city" until those living on Earth have no more memories of them.
The book concentrates greatly on the dead, especially the recently departed who are hesitant to give up their link with those still living on Earth. Brockmeier claims not to write with any moral in mind. "I'm trying to express something about being human. The book offers a partial fictional answer to the question: 'How many people do you remember?' But it leaves the third terrain of existence to the imagination of readers."
Brockmeier's imagination puts him in a good position to describe the landscape of "the city," the intermediate place where the recently departed live. "But not the final outcome. I wanted that to be a place that would permit the imagination of whatever anyone would suppose. I wouldn't say these questions have haunted me, but they are questions of curiosity and delight — even though I still don't know the answers to the questions."
He sees "the city" as "an extension of this realm of existence, cobbled together for all the years of human history, from what the dead remembered. Some people spontaneously appear in the city, and most of them are well-equipped for the transition. But some are wrong-footed."
Perhaps the major character in the book is Laura Byrd, a research scientist on assignment in the Antarctic. When her power is cut off, she finds herself desperately alone and forced to cross the tundra in a strange vehicle called a "sludge." As she journeys, it is her memories that allow her to keep cheating death as she uses various techniques she has learned . . . but thought she had forgotten.
Having known essentially nothing about the Antarctic when he began the novel, Brockmeier had to read about it. Much of the background he needed came from "Ice: Stories of Survival from Polar Exploration," edited by Clint Willis, and "The Worst Journey in the World," a memoir of Antarctic exploration by Apsley Cherry-Garrard.
Once Brockmeier started paying attention to the Antarctic, it seemed that it popped up everywhere, in one form or another. "I felt as if I was being fed all sorts of information from a variety of sources. When I started to write, it came slowly. I write very, very slowly. I work sentence by sentence, trying to make each one as rich as I can make it, but still be able to read it with a certain amount of fluidity.
"If people read the book slowly, I hope that means it's a good read. The book straddles the divide between realistic and fantastic fiction."
Brockmeier has his foot firmly planted in two writing worlds — adult fiction and children's fiction. He has written several children's books, and his most recent is finished but not yet published. In the meantime, he is writing short stories for a new collection.
The single, full-time writer credits much of his success to the Iowa Writers Workshop, where he studied and later taught. "I suspect I would have grown as a writer wherever I was, but Iowa was a very good place for me. They give you a lot of freedom to do your own work. I had wonderful teachers and very bright classmates."
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com