Thomas LynchThe Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade

Mr. Lynch’s 1997 memoir about being an undertaker reminded me of a cross between James Herriot’s ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ and Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon in it being a gentle slow read about a unique profession. The stories are not in chronological order. ‘The Undertaking’ explains how American customs have evolved during the twentieth century in dealing with life and death. Beyond ample amounts of funny stories and remarks, as well as gut-wrenching material, the author’s observations and ruminations about facing our and loved one’s mortality are thought-provoking. I found myself frequently reading excerpts of Mr. Lynch’s book to my wife, which led to interesting discussions. Part of that may be because we are both sixty years old and have more days behind us than ahead.The Michigan undertaker touches such topics as respecting grief; embalming his own dad; their mom’s Catholic faith and dying of cancer; why funeral parlors are similar to old-style family parlors; various mindsets about what happens after we die; his hometown of Milford; his friendship with a hypochondriac poet; an undertaker’s reputation; and how the nature of the job psychologically spills over into their personal lives. Mr. Lynch’s recollections about his childhood, early adulthood, divorce, and raising four young kids on his own effectively run the entire gamut of emotions and fears. He also includes a nonsensical topic about combining cemeteries and golf courses. Mr. Lynch’s chapter musing about homicide and suicide is not only highly philosophical but quite gory. The last short chapter about his eventual death was a great way to end the book.Mr. Lynch has a wonderful way with words. This should come as no surprise because he is an accomplished poet. Readers who have lost loved ones or have deep fears about their own inevitable death may find solace from ‘The Undertaking.’ It made me happy to be alive and surrounded by family and friends. I could ask no more from a book.

A Poet’s Take on Life, Death, And Everything in BetweenThe Undertaking: Life Studies From the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch. W.W. Norton & Company 1997 $13.95.“This is none of my business”, Thomas Lynch proclaims about his funeral, and yet, it is his: funeral director, mortician, undertaker, poet. Mr. Lynch is an Irish poet who here presents a dozen essays about his stock in trade, deftly weaving together anecdotes of the dead with funeral conventions and all manner of his profession.These essays are more lyric than memoir, and Mr. Lynch’s background in poetry shines through in all of them. In one, the reader is reminded, or perhaps the author is reminding himself, that “the dead don’t care” whether their bodies are cremated, buried, scattered, or left to science. Another essay targets the author’s upbringing with an overprotective, mortician father who sees death lingering around every corner. It is only when the author becomes both a father and funeral director himself that he sees the wisdom of his late father’s intense scrutiny.If there is any fault in these reflections, it is that the author tends to go on at length, over the course of several essays, about re-connecting with his Irish roots. Visiting family overseas turns him to introspection about both the country of Ireland and his Catholic rearing. Lynch draws interesting parallels between the plumbing and funeral business and man’s return to the natural world. In so doing, he also relates a succinct history of the death industry, but still manages to wax nostalgic and poetic for the way things were.No aspect of life, or death, is left unmentioned in this tome. The book starts off endearingly with the author’s own immature views of undertaking as a child: “And I wondered why it wasn’t underputter—you know, for the one who puts them underground.” Lynch meanders through the embalming process, obsesses about the positioning of a body, discusses Dr. Kevorkian’s method of self-euthanasia, love, sex, grief, and divorce. In one amusing essay Lynch ponders the possibilities of a combination golf course and cemetery, and the semantics of such a scheme. Another essay finds the author wandering the streets of his small town in Michigan, musing on local celebrities and their influence in getting a new town bridge built. Uncle Eddie is the star of yet another essay wherein he starts a crime scene clean-up business while Lynch relates his own experiences in the matter.Some essay topics may be too delicate a subject for certain readers, such as when Lynch examines the issue of children’s funerals and purchases of child-sized coffins of pink or blue. About dispensing advice for consumers, or even his own final preparations, the author appeals to the average person’s emotions: “Whatever’s there to feel, feel it—the riddance, the relief, the fright, and freedom, the fear of forgetting, the dull ache of your own mortality…you’ll know what to do. Go now, I think you are ready.”

After hearing the author speak on BBC Radio 4's "In Our Time" podcast and being impressed with what he said I ordered two of his books.I read the author's other book (Bodies in Motion) and didn't enjoy it. I didn't review it as I felt my failing to enjoy the book was about me not 'getting' the author's work.This book I felt I would enjoy having spent seven years working as an undertaker. Once again I did not enjoy it. My authentic response is that I do not enjoy this author's style of writing.

An extraordinary book, to put it mildly. I reckon the insights are hard-earned, and long matured. I could write about his style, but "style" can suggest something ornamental or separate from what he has to say. Surely the point about his poignant-written thoughts and observations, and his witty, beautifully judged comic passages is that they simply sound like the man himself, they have a well-wrought authenticity about them, they way hey are written is the whole point of them. Wordy,, one reviewer says. Well, only in the best sense.I'm a funeral celebrant, and I find his insights to be hugely resonant and helpful, his compassion and honesty exemplary- and he's bloody funny too! I just hope a lot of people read this book who are nothing to do with the end of life, with death and funerals- because as a reviewer says, this is a book about life, and how to live it better by thinking and feeling your way a little more closely towards death- just for a quick sneak, before rushing back to the telly, the saloon bar, the garden....This book deserves to be a classic. He's a really fine writer in one of the best U.S. traditions, the down-to-earth voice from a frontier of some sort, unruffled but deeply moved.

A beautiful incite to a world that affects all of us but few know what it means to deal with death upclose and personal. Written with an open heart and wonderful, humorous prose this is a must read.

Thomas Lynch is an amazing speaker and writer. This is an excellent commentary on the funeral industry and applicable to a UK audience.

An interesting look at life and death from an Undertaker's point of view. Very well written and thought-provoking. Amusing yet serious. Well worth the read.