# Bitter Grounds Neil Gaiman **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 12, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitter-grounds-neil-gaiman/513487 "2009-10-12T03:35:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![XanderCrews](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ee59a6/32.png) [@XanderCrews](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XanderCrews)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitter-grounds-neil-gaiman/513487/1 "2009-10-12T03:35:40Z")
Can someone explain this story to me? I’m lost. I think it’s in “Fragile Things” but I came across it in a zombie anthology. ---
**Author:** ![XanderCrews](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ee59a6/32.png) [@XanderCrews](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XanderCrews)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitter-grounds-neil-gaiman/513487/2 "2009-10-13T01:09:41Z")
Nobody? Well, I must not be alone in my confusion. ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitter-grounds-neil-gaiman/513487/3 "2009-10-13T01:25:38Z")
Did you read it in _The Living Dead_ zombie anthology? That’s where I read it. And damned if I know. I think the guy was dead along and when he finally accepted it that’s when the little girl came and got him. But really I thought it was crap. Or maybe I’m just not smart enough to understand it. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitter-grounds-neil-gaiman/513487/4 "2009-10-13T01:48:21Z")
You need to be a little more specific about what you want explained. If you didn’t understand a single word of the entire story then I doubt there’s anything anyone here can do for you, but if there’s some particular element you found confusing then someone may be able to help. If it’s the ending you didn’t get, I think **Amp** has it – the narrator was a zombie from the beginning. If you re-read the opening of the story there are some phrases that take on a double meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitter-grounds-neil-gaiman/513487/5 "2009-10-13T01:53:36Z")
Anecdote: When I first read “Bitter Grounds” I was amused because of something that had happened almost exactly a year before. I’d met Neil Gaiman briefly at a book signing at a professional convention (ALA 2006). This convention was in New Orleans, and I was in a sense attending under another person’s identity. (A friend had paid for “early bird” registration and was then unable to go, so I bought it from her. It was transferred to my name, though.) On this same trip I also met a Voodoo Priestess. As far as I know I’m still not dead, though. ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitter-grounds-neil-gaiman/513487/6 "2009-10-13T01:58:22Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Anecdote: When I first read “Bitter Grounds” I was amused because of something that had happened almost exactly a year before. I’d met Neil Gaiman briefly at a book signing at a professional convention (ALA 2006). This convention was in New Orleans, and I was in a sense attending under another person’s identity. (A friend had paid for “early bird” registration and was then unable to go, so I bought it from her. It was transferred to my name, though.) On this same trip I also met a Voodoo Priestess. > > As far as I know I’m still not dead, though. Well, if you have any little girls knocking on your door early in the morning trying to sell you coffee, don’t answer the door. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitter-grounds-neil-gaiman/513487/7 "2009-10-13T01:59:29Z")
I’m a tea drinker, so I think I’m safe. I don’t want their damn coffee! ---
**Author:** ![XanderCrews](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ee59a6/32.png) [@XanderCrews](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XanderCrews)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitter-grounds-neil-gaiman/513487/8 "2009-10-13T02:32:14Z")
I actually picked up two zombie anthologies yesterday, The Living Dead and Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead, and it is in both of them. What is the deal with the people he meets who keep dissapearing? ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bitter-grounds-neil-gaiman/513487/9 "2009-10-13T15:20:53Z")
The narrator was a zombie?! Man, I have to reread that. Hopefully it’ll make more sense this time.