false 70488606 56479 2439336 1594489874 9781594489877 112 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1257630579m/2439336.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2439336.Alive_in_Necropolis 3.26 282
But instead of settling comfortably into adult life, Mercer becomes obsessed with the mysterious fate of his predecessor in the police unit, Sergeant Featherstone, who seems to have become confused about whether he was policing the living or the dead…]]> 1086430 3.28 295 120 Though it's fantasy, it has a contemp-lit feel to it that I don't like much. Everybody talking, nobody communicating. 0 2009-09-14T17:56:21-07:00 1309391 115 2009-09-14T17:56:21-07:00 2 0 false Sat Sep 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 11:58:22 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 15:28:53 -0700 2009
I had about made up my mind to give up at 150, but that was where the late Sgt. Featherstone's police reports appeared, describing his earliest encounters with ghosts, and that was interesting enough to give the book a reprieve. But the reprieve was brief.

This reads like the short stories in the New Yorker, and this is not a compliment. It's full of the vague, directionless wanderings of vague, directionless people who are unhappy and dissatisfied and yet so passive that they can't be bothered to want anything. Why bother?]]>