Dead Man Talking

Ross McEwan - 16 Jun, 2024

A witty conversation with a friend.

Dead Man Talking by Jonathan Squirell is a funny and intelligent take on immortality, offering laughs throughout a life full of misery. Reading as an almost autobiographical conversation, Squirrell tells the life story of a man with powers of rebirth, able to die but able to be brought back to life again through a ritual of ash, blood and fire. Though a constant throughout the story, Squirell focuses on the man, rather than the monster. What aims in life does an immortal have? How does he find happiness? This journey shows multiple attempts and failures twisting through a strange and pitiful being.

Squirrell weaves the story of vampiric origin and mundane life into a gripping narrative that makes you care for the mundane and less so about the fantastical. The monster aspect of this novel is very much set in the background of the story. The man and his journey to find meaning in life is the real focus. Unlike Anne Rice's "The Interview with the Vampire", Squirrell emphasises the human aspect of someone who is not. Within the novel, the sections surrounding the undead and investigating the monster's origins are less entertaining than those of true inner conquest and love.

The tone of the novel is very casual and while breaking many literary rules, it allows the reader and the narrator to connect quickly, through the use of wit-based puns and cynicism. The narrator is at times looking down on humans and making jokes about their ways, whilst also pining to be more like them and within the relationships that they have been missing throughout their own life. This allows the reader to find humour in jokes, and then also sorrow in the empathy of someone struggling to find their want or meaning in life.

Due to the writing style being that of a conversation, the narrator can ramble. This can lose the reader at times when a poignant point is being made. At times these reflective passages add nuance and feel but some of the passages are amiss and can take away from the point of the section in the chapter. This can just be the narrator's style, it is himself, talking of his thoughts and life, not rambling occasionally would not be truly representative of inner reflection.

The conclusion of the narrative synthesises the fantastical and the mundane. Filled with love and sorrow, the conclusion is heartbreaking, stifling all hopes of a happy and fulfilled life, yet through acceptance of the vampiric nature of the narrator, he can save the things he now holds very dear, although losing himself in the process.

Squirrell takes the reader on a journey of wanderlust, emptiness, depression, hope, happiness, love, devastation, shock and true sorrow, while somehow being able to make the reader chuckle every other page and maybe shed a tear every other chapter. It is a great read and allows the reader to question the important aspects of life.