I honestly have never pondered what it would be like if the
dead returned to life, completely intact.
In this novel, that is what happens, and the “Returned” person may show
up on the opposite side of the world from where they died. Harold and Lucille’s son Jacob died fifty
years prior, when he was eight years old.
Now he’s back at just that age, but his parents are now elderly. Harold is wary, but Lucille is all in,
ecstatic that her son is back. Then more
and more people return from the dead, and they will soon perhaps outnumber the
living. A federal bureau starts setting
up internment camps, including one in Arcadia, NC, where Harold and Lucille
live. When Jacob is sent to the camp,
Harold accompanies him. Meanwhile, one
of their neighbors, whose wife is dead but has not returned, becomes enraged at
how the internment camp is taking over the town and starts protesting the
existence of the Returned, although he does not seem to have a concrete plan
for getting rid of them. I guess I’m just
too pragmatic, but this plot was too absurd for me. I don’t even know what genre applies to this
book. Fantasy? It is not a horror story, as the Returned are
not zombies with an evil agenda. I like
the author’s writing style and the fact that Lucille is a person who likes
fancy words. Apparently, the book’s
message is about love and having a second chance to communicate with a departed
loved one. However, I felt that there is
possibly a metaphor here about immigration and how difficult a problem it is
for this country to solve, with more incoming than outgoing.
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