The Life We Bury - A Must Read
The back-jacket summary drew me in and proved (unlike so many novels) to be an honest pitch: A story about a student writer who, somewhat by chance, locates the subject of his biographical (college class) project at a nearby nursing home. The biographical subject, a Vietnam War vet who was convicted of rape and murder 30 years earlier, is dying of cancer thereby introducing an added, looming deadline to finish the writing project.
The writer begins with the weary task of documenting the life of a murderer but, through his research, revises his mission to that of uncovering the buried truth of the old murder.
This novel is probably classified as a thriller but I consider it a literary thriller. There's thrills and spills to make it a page turner but it doesn't over rely on such action. For me it was the rich character development, character interaction and psychological aspects that make this a great story and read.
My only disappointment (albeit minor) is that the story never reveals if the class project (the biographical paper) was a success with the English professor and whether the student decided to become a journalist or professional writer. As a reader I was left to draw my own favourable conclusions for these minor questions.
I seek out debut novels as they tend to be more honest than the writing of more "experienced" writers who often seem to be lured off course by fame, fortune and laziness. This novel is genuine writing and I'm looking forward to this author's future work, hoping to find similar honesty. I'm recommending and/or gifting copies of this novel to all of my reading friends.
