Life After Life

One of my constant worries as a reader is that a beloved author will disappoint. It is especially true when the beloved author hasn't published anything in a long, long time. Jill McCorkle is one such author for me and I must say that I was very, very worried that her new book, Life After Life, would be a disappointment. Happily, I will tell you that this did not happen.

Life After Life takes place in a nursing home. All the characters live in the nursing home or work in the nursing home or have family or friends in the nursing home. Death is a silent character in every story in this book. You can see Death, waiting down the hall, sitting on the bed, at times hovering over and carrying our characters away, and that gives the stories resonance. Unlike other books with younger characters, the characters in Life After Life often greet Death, welcome Death, like a beloved friend; Death in these stories is no longer the enemy.

I liked this book a lot, but you should know that I'm at a place in my life where Death is visiting more and more of my family and friends. I'm not sure the stories would have the same impact for those of you who are not well acquainted with him.