Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing

Living in the Future

By: Charles Bowden

Narrated by: Gary Roelofs

The third book in Charles Bowden’s “accidental trilogy” that began with Blood Orchid and Blues for Cannibals, Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing attempts to resolve the overarching question: How can a person live a moral life in a culture of death?

As humanity moves further into the 21st century, Bowden continues to interrogate our roles in creating the ravaged landscapes and accumulated death that still surround us, as well as his own childhood isolation, his lust for alcohol and women, and his waning hope for a future. We witness post-Katrina New Orleans and terrorist-bombed Bali; we encounter our shared actions with the animal world and the desirous need for consumption; we see the clash and erosion of our physical and figurative borders, the savagery of our own civilization. A man of his time and out of time, Bowden seeks acceptance and a will to endure what may lie ahead.

The book is published by University of Texas Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"Bowden manages to write about these currently unfashionable topics with humor, style, and laconic compression." (Edward Abbey)

"Here is the new American nature writing - resourceful, funny, personal, full of good facts, words of the locals, hard-hitting but not self-righteous." (Gary Snyder)

"Bowden is a blood-and-guts journalist with a poet’s sensibility, a noirish naturalist, a ferociously inquisitive witness to life’s glory and horror." (Booklist)

©2009 Charles Bowden (P)2021 Redwood Audiobooks

Dare to listen

Bowden is not easy or uplifting or politically correct. He is raw and lustful and beautiful. And right.
Dare to listen. Dare to stop hiding behind platitudes and niceties. Dare to not be easily offended. Dare to admit life is painful and messy and spectacular.
The narration is very good but I had to deduct a star for lack of force and passion. I have heard Bowden speak on numerous occasions. His voice was deep and booming and rich with feeling. I had a hard time connecting the audiobook narration with what I know the author’s real voice to have been.

Beware

This book is too dangerous for America in 2022, but it is more necessary than ever. Listeners are in a for a dark, strange, wild ride.