SOURCE: Whitaker, Phil. “The Absolute End.” New Statesman (20 September 1999): 57-58.

In the following review, Whitaker offers a positive assessment of Being Dead.

Jim Crace's sixth novel begins with the two central characters lying murdered on an isolated beach. Joseph and Celice, both zoologists, had met as postgraduates on a field trip to Baritone Bay, their relationship being consummated among its dunes. When, after three decades of marriage, they discover that the area is about to be bulldozed to build luxury houses and a marina, the idea of a nostalgic return takes hold. Without informing anyone of their destination, they set off. It is to be their last journey—their presence on the beach provokes an act of random violence that leaves them mutilated and dying on a bed of lissom grass.

From here the narrative moves forward and back in time, exploring the biological and cultural consequences of...