Fast, funny, and remarkably good-natured: You’ll die laughing.
An extremely funny debut novel, set mostly within the confines of a funeral home that hugs the shoreline of bad taste without actually running aground.
Had he been born about 20 years later, Casey Kight would have been a Goth—as it was, in 1974, he was just plain weird. Orphaned at ten, when his parents died in a plane crash, Casey wore a black suit to school (which may have been why he never found a girlfriend) and for good luck carried the key to a funeral parlor with him everywhere he went. On his 21st birthday, he was hired by the Morton-Albright Funeral Home in Angel Shores, Florida, and began work as a mortuary apprentice. His boss, Jerry Stiles, was blunt in his assessment: “There are only three types of men working in the funeral trade: those born into it, those married into it, and those drawn into it. It’s the latter type that gives me pause.” Casey was drawn all right, but he’s not morbid—he’s a natural. Soon he is living at the home as well as working there (much of their business comes in after-hours, you see), and Jerry is fixing him up with his daughter Natalie (who likes to bite people and keeps a photo album of, well, corpses). Apparently old Colton Albright, who owns the business, put a clause in his will leaving everything to the youngest member of the family with a male heir, so Jerry sees an opportunity for his daughter and Casey to get busy. Fast. Because Colton’s got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, as they say in the trade. But there are other problems, too, not the least of which is the Jacob Funeral Trust, a conglomerate that is buying up every independent funeral home in the South and has Morton-Albright in its crosshairs. Is there any chance of a normal life for Casey? Or will his weirdest dreams come true?
Fast, funny, and remarkably good-natured: You’ll die laughing.Pub Date: March 6, 2002
ISBN: 0-312-27462-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2002
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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