"Death of an Ordinary Man" by Glen Duncan
A thrilling tale of suburban family life, narrated from beyond the grave.

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By Andrew O'Hehir

Jan. 24, 2005  |  Nathan Clark's experience of being dead is a little like waking up disoriented when you're on vacation: "Those first mornings in foreign hotels you opened your eyes and knew nothing: where you were, how you'd got there, who you were, even. You could be anyone. Like that, but without the hotel."

Nathan's problem, in English novelist Glen Duncan's wrenching page-turner, isn't just that he's dead. He's a ghost, haunting his stricken family on the day of his own funeral, although he never quite says the word "ghost" to himself. That's part of the problem with being dead, it seems; you're still you, and your thoughts and feelings mostly seem familiar, but you're wrestling with all kinds of new sensations, and your relationship to the living world isn't quite what it used to be.

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