Foreword

In the spring of 2007, I was one of dozens of commuters who settled
into my subway seat each morning with a copy of the New York Daily
News. as the city rattled around me, I marveled at stories of daring
escaped criminals, foiled terrorist plots, and the science of sudoku.

But on the morning of February 9, 2007, everything in my life, and the
lives of all the people on that subway car, changed.

We were shocked, terrified, angry. How could the story of one of our
greatest American icons be over?

Thankfully, it wasn't. The story would continue for many long months
- not in life, but in afterlife.

Charles McCarthy was a humble writer from Los Angeles. Life hadn't
been easy for him. It had taken many twists and turns, across the
country, and even at times, across the thin blue line of the law. In
that way, perhaps like all of us, McCarthy had something in common
with the heroine of his greatest literary work, "Anna in the
Afterlife."

McCarthy focused his rage, his sympathy, and his frustration into an
epic adventure spanning the American landscape. It was a journey we
have all taken. Every one of us has eaten a hot dog, has visited a
movie studio, has reminded someone's womanhood of what it was to be
alive, even when you are dead.

In the end, was the journey worth it? Did McCarthy help us close the
book on Anna, and in that way, move on the the next chapter of our own
lives?

Some argue that, if anything, he prolonged the pain. The ending to
his masterpiece is anything but clean cut. Are we really like Anna at
all, or is she so far removed from us as to create a void that
approaches infinity? Is the uncertainty that McCarthy dangles in
front of our noses what we we really want to see in the afterlife? Is
it not his responsibility, having opened this can of worms, to give us
closure, satisfaction, a happy ending?

Fortunately, I am of the opinion that it is exactly the opposite that
we need. In this uncertain life, full of danger, terrorism, and
drugs, the cold, hard certainty of death is a burden too great to
bear, especially when it consumes the bright shining star of someone
as beautiful, young, and vibrant as our Anna.

The vision of her quest, its uncertain end, and the joy it brings
along the way gives us all hope.

In that sense, Anna - and her afterlife - have touched us all.

-Edward Jacoby James Mundy
10 July 2007