Life After Death and Other Stories

by Susan Compo

Susan Compo documents life on the cutting edge in post-punk Los Angeles through the interconnected lives of a dozen young scenesters struggling to keep their images up-to-date and their illusions intact. A novella and 16 stories describe lives of seediness and glamour, alienation and attachment, lives in which reality is a constant threat to cherished expectations.

Genres: Short Stories

232 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1990

Reviews

[Steve]

I enjoyed the short stories in this collection much more than the the title novella Life After Death. The title story felt very two dimensional and gimmicky, telling us of Zelda’s obsession with getting her hands on Marilyn Monroe’s secret diary with her Sid Vicious obsessed boyfriend Vex tagging along. I felt like I was reading a film treatment of a zany plot, mocking rather than exploring, its characters. In the short stories that follow some of the characters in the title story are explored in greater depth and dimension and become much more interesting. I especially liked the the last few stories about Honor, obsessed with Robert Smith of the Cure, her parents send her to Switzerland for an actual cure of what mentally ails her. Later, on the mend in London, she falls for an introspective, arty but secretly married boy, while also being pursued by the rising rock star Gaudy. I felt much sympathy for the both the self obsessed and celebrity obsessed characters in the stories that followed Life After Death.