The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade

Gebraucht, aber sehr guter Zustand.

So opens the singular testimony of the poet Thomas Lynch. Like all poets, inspired by death, Lynch is, unlike others, also hired to bury the dead or to cremate them and to tend to their families in a small Michigan town where he serves as teh funeral director. In this wholly unique collection of essays, the two cocations meet as Lynch shows himself to be a competent functionary of mourning - dispensing comfort and homespun wisdom to teh grief-stricken - as well as a poet poignantly turning language to the right tones of private release. In its homages to parents who have died and to children who shouldn't have, its tales of golfers tripping over grave markers, portraits of gourmands and hypochondiracs, lovers and suicides, The Undertaking displays an impressively wide vocal range, from solemn, nostalgic, and lyrical to acerbic, sprightly, and unflinchingly professional.

English, Essays