Scan barcode
salmonfry's review against another edition
dark
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
1.5
didn't feel fresh, a bit judgmental and aggressive
shereadsshedrinks's review against another edition
5.0
One of my top five favorite books of all time, I like to read it every couple of years to remind myself what a lyrical and beautiful writer Thomas Lynch is and how much this book resonates in me. This time I listened on audio, though the narrator is no substitute for hearing Thomas Lynch read his own work.
rhianner's review against another edition
2.0
it was fine until he got all anti-abortion in the chapter on suicide
sophiaxlm's review against another edition
3.0
低于预期值的一本散文集。富有诗意的优美句子和调侃的讲故事语气是文章中的亮点——譬如“过去好比老人重游的故地，未来是儿童梦想的奇境，生与死宛如大海环绕四周。中年是生死之间的那一瞬，仿佛一个边界，看起来往那边走都行，因为驰目所见，两边都同样美好”；还有那个疑心病重的友人、剖析洋蓟的诗人、清理自杀现场的生意——诸如此类。但这些优点常常淹没在作者车翻来覆去的死亡感悟和宗教意味浓厚的说教中，几乎产生了在看鸡汤文的错觉。
circularcubes's review against another edition
2.0
I wasn't super into the poetry bits, there wasn't enough discussion about being an undertaker, and I disagreed with his views on abortion and assisted suicide. BUT, that final chapter was beautiful.
meissner's review against another edition
3.75
absolutely loved it UNTIL chapter 10 and then everything sort of fell off the deep end. Was a really nice meditation on life and death from a unique perspective until he started making direct equivalencies from assisted suicide to abortion in a pretty nasty way. The book bleeds "written by a catholic man" which is (as you would expect) fun until it's really super not. I get that the chapter on assisted suicide v abortion was supposed to be super uncomfortable because (as Lynch sees it) they're both like unnatural and interfering with the proper cycle of things or whatever and it is so close to making sense if you view it completely objectively, but as a real person in the real world this portion of the book was a real deal breaker for me and made me lose faith in the author (which is real upsetting for a memoir). Luckily, it was at the end and I still consider the book as a whole worth the read. Neat stuff overall, probably will look into some of Lynch's other works a little later