AFTERLIFE is a humorous yet tragic tale that forces everyone rethink their postmortem prejudices. If you think life is frustrating, try death.
Excerpt
“Afterlife delivers a story crawling with heart, humor and hope. Packed with a cast of characters who surprise with insights, integrity and insults, this book made me more curious about life’s after-party. We can all hope that Guy’s vision can light the way, because we’ll be laughing and learning on that path while we wait for our turn at care that’s critical.” Ron Seybold
“imaginative, funny and smart.” Heidi Springer
—- early reader reviews —-
Guy Smith’s story of a newly dead ghost’s travails is told in such a witty way that it seems impossible there could be any poignancy to the book. But on the contrary, it’s a sort of Texas-style, stiff-upper-lip, telling that attempts to mask, but can’t hide, a very moving and vulnerable story. Sounds just like how we often try to gloss over the most profound issues and challenges in life. And it is just like that. Funny and moving, it’s a great read.
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Guy Smith is acerbic, bizarre, and utterly deranged. I mean that in the nicest possible sense, of course. In this novella-length work, he equally offends both Christians and atheists. I suspect Buddhists might take exception, as well.
“Afterlife” took a few twists and turns that surprised me, which is hard to do because I am fairly well twisted myself. Smith’s conception of life after death is not too far removed from Bruce Rubin’s, but the ending is much less idyllic. Demi Moore superfans will get that reference. You know who you are . . .
Independent film makers take note: I see a great script attempting to claw its way out of this book. Hollywood won’t tackle it; the cloyingly sweet ending is absent. Tom Waits, maybe. Or Jim Jarmusch.
Buy the book. It’s cheap – tack it on to your next Amazon order. You won’t be sorry.
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This book, Afterlife, by Guy Smith, a new writer, is a winner, five stars plus: 1) Because of its human depth of touch, Afterlife engages the reader in a much larger way than its novella nature might suggest; 2) The story line is riveting with its unfolding plot, twists and turns, surprises, insights and pleasures; 3) Character presence of both main and incidental figures is remarkable in presenting the individuality of their life and death story; 4) I would not call the story humorous. It is written with good humor. My eyes were often wet with tears of sadness, joy and enthusiastic cheering; 5) Much of society keeps death’s possible discomfort distant, whether by incarceration, white sterile settings, condolences by platitudes, thinking death is elsewhere, later or not for me. Afterlife has us there with the flesh of death, and the plethora of society’s forces and professionals who appear to the bane (often under the guise of caring) or enlightenment of survivors; and, th
en, Plus) There is a pervading warmth and love within this text which is rich with a freedom offered to the reader to explore his or her own intimacy with the subject.
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I always welcome a good interpretation of the afterlife, but this book was one of the most interesting I’ve read. You have to appreciate a man who demonstrates such a love for his wife. Without saying too much–don’t want to spoil the fun–the main character may ooze love for his wife but his wicked sense of humor makes for a titillating read. There were a couple of things I didn’t like so much, like the harshness of some of the characters, but I suppose that was essential to move the plot along. Every book has its flaws. Regardless, this is an entertaining, short book for a weekend at the beach or a long plane ride.
If you are a fan of loose, breezy — and especially snarky — prose, you’ll love this little wise-a$$ handful of a book.
The subject matter almost doesn’t matter — the character insights and interactions are just fun — even when (maybe especially) when tragic. It is perhaps the dissonance of tragic/snarky that makes the book compelling.
Copyright 2008 Guy Smith. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
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