“The Life We Bury” by Allen Eskens – Defining a Life

We have a tendency to judge most people, perhaps even ourselves at times, based on a single action or event. Innumerable are the cases where people are erroneously judged, being labeled as one thing or another for all eternity, no matter what the actual truth may be.

In The Life We Bury Allen Eskens explores this idea on many levels as a college student by the name of Joe Talbert finds himself with a simple task: write a random person's biography.

However, the assignment turns out to be anything but simple, for the subject of his biography is Carl Iverson, a Vietnam War hero, as well as a convicted rapist and murderer. Dying, he has been granted a transfer to a nursing home after spending his last thirty years in prison.

That is where the two protagonists meet, but the more Joe learns about Carl, the less he is capable of reconciling the two images he has of him and believing that he actually was responsible for the crimes he was accused of.

And so, along with his skeptical neighbor, Joe throws himself into this investigation, unraveling bit by bit Carl's life and assumed crime, all while having to contend with a very dysfunctional family of his own.

More than being a simple mystery about a man who may or may not have been wrongly convicted, the book is largely a meditation on truth, justice, personal history, and what it means to define ourselves or be defined by something. Of course, that doesn't mean it is lacking in the entertainment factor.

We are hooked by the many surprising, inspiring, terrifying and thought-provoking moments that defined Iverson as a person, not to mention that the build-up makes us dying to know how he came to be convicted for his crimes.

Joe's family dynamic also takes the center stage on many occasions, as he has to contend with a rather troubling childhood with a very dysfunctional mother and an autistic brother he let down.

Though perhaps it would not seem like it from the description given above, this is actually a very fast-paced story, one where one powerful event shakes you right after the next, seldom giving you any time for a breather, effectively capturing Joe's state of mind: he must uncover the truth before Carl bites the dust, for any of it to be worth a shadow of a damn.

The further the story advances the more tense things become as our protagonists become more and more entangled in a web of danger, ultimately leading to a rather earth-shattering climax, one that will definitely stay with you for a while.

In the end, whether you are interested in the investigation aspect of the book, is deep character interactions and development, or perhaps even the psychology behind our ability to dictate the truth, then rest assured you will not be disappointed in any way.

The story is nothing short of captivating, the characters make you think and feel like few others, and there is food for thought to be found aplenty. One can do nothing but recommend a book such as this one.

---

Favourite quote: "No one can change the sound of an echo."

---

Allen Eskens Personal site Allen Eskens is a writer whose first novel was The Life We Bury, with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Minnesota. In 2015 he was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author. His grand goal is to give readers novels that challenge their creative thinking with magnificent twists but also respect them with intellectual honesty and appreciation.