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A review by bhsmith
The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch
2.0
Books make their way to my shelf for a variety of reasons: they've been a bestseller, they've been recommended by friends, the author had an interesting profile written about them, or the book just seems like something quirky and fun to read. Since "The Undertaking" was written in the late 1990s, I'm guessing that I didn't notice it on a bestseller list or read any recent press about it. So, it probably made it's way to my shelf based on the "quirky and fun" criteria. I was expecting a few hundred pages where you mix the writing style of Mary Roach, the real-life (to an extent, I know) behind-the-scenes look at a funeral home of Six Feet Under, with a dash of "this is what really happens behind closed doors" of Anthony Bourdain. Put all that together in some form or another and you've got a book I'd love to read!
Sadly, "The Undertaking" was nothing at all like that. It was essentially a few hundred pages of philosophizing about life and death with a few anecdotes about the funeral home trade thrown in to the mix to bookend the soliloquies about life. Thomas Lynch certainly has an interesting outlook on life since his professional puts him so close to death every day. His overall message - which I think is a good one - is that a funeral and everything that takes place after someone is dead is really not about the recently deceased, but all about those left behind to mourn them. It may be nice that you want your favorite song played at your funeral, but if playing that song doesn't do anything for the people there to mourn you, then why play it? It isn't about you anymore. There are probably plenty of people in this world - maybe myself among them - that need to hear this message and realize what exactly the funeral home trade is there for... getting the dead body out of your house, sure, but really more about helping the living.
It was mentioned repeatedly throughout the entire book that Lynch is a poet, likes poetry, hangs around with poets, has people request him to write poetry and is a published poet. I certainly don't mind poetry (though, to be frank, I don't read much of it), but the prose in this book was trying just too hard to be poetry, and it really didn't work. It often meant that the stories and lessons and sermons Lynch was sharing about his life and (a little) about the funeral home business were neither interesting and easy to read (if he were to err on the side of being less poetic), or outright poetic and thought-provoking (if he were to err on the side of being more poetic). Instead, most of the book was caught in the awkward middle.
Sadly, "The Undertaking" was nothing at all like that. It was essentially a few hundred pages of philosophizing about life and death with a few anecdotes about the funeral home trade thrown in to the mix to bookend the soliloquies about life. Thomas Lynch certainly has an interesting outlook on life since his professional puts him so close to death every day. His overall message - which I think is a good one - is that a funeral and everything that takes place after someone is dead is really not about the recently deceased, but all about those left behind to mourn them. It may be nice that you want your favorite song played at your funeral, but if playing that song doesn't do anything for the people there to mourn you, then why play it? It isn't about you anymore. There are probably plenty of people in this world - maybe myself among them - that need to hear this message and realize what exactly the funeral home trade is there for... getting the dead body out of your house, sure, but really more about helping the living.
It was mentioned repeatedly throughout the entire book that Lynch is a poet, likes poetry, hangs around with poets, has people request him to write poetry and is a published poet. I certainly don't mind poetry (though, to be frank, I don't read much of it), but the prose in this book was trying just too hard to be poetry, and it really didn't work. It often meant that the stories and lessons and sermons Lynch was sharing about his life and (a little) about the funeral home business were neither interesting and easy to read (if he were to err on the side of being less poetic), or outright poetic and thought-provoking (if he were to err on the side of being more poetic). Instead, most of the book was caught in the awkward middle.