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The depositions : new and selected essays on being and ceasing to be / Thomas Lynch ; foreword by Alan Ball.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : W. W. Norton & Company, [2020]Edition: First editionDescription: ix, 342 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781324003977
  • 1324003979
Other title:
  • Essays on being and ceasing to be
Uniform titles:
  • Essays. Selections
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Foreword by Alan Ball -- from THE UNDERTAKING : The undertaking ; Gladstone ; Crapper ; The right hand of the Father ; The golfatorium ; Tract -- from BODIES IN MOTION AND AT REST : Introduction ; Bodies in motion and at rest ; Fish stories ; Y2Kat ; The way we are ; Reno -- from BOOKING PASSAGE : Introduction- The ethnography of everyday life ; The brother ; The same but different ; The sisters Godhelpus -- from THE GOOD FUNERAL : How we come to be the ones we are ; The theory and practice of cremation -- NEW ESSAYS : Introit ; Miracles ; Moveable and steadfast feasts ; Whence & whither ; The done thing.
Summary: "A wry and compassionate selection of essays reflecting on mortals and mortality, from the acclaimed author of The Undertaking. For nearly four decades, poet, essayist, and small- town funeral director Thomas Lynch has probed relations between the literary and mortuary arts. His life's work with the dead and the bereaved has informed four previous collections of nonfiction, each exploring identity and humanity with Lynch's signature blend of memoir, meditation, gallows humor, and poetic precision. The Depositions provides an essential selection from these masterful collections, as well as new essays in which the space between Lynch's hyphenated identities-as an Irish American, undertaker-poet-is narrowed by the deaths of poets, the funerals of friends, the loss of neighbors, intimate estrangements, and the slow demise of a beloved dog. Meanwhile, the press of the author's own mortality sharpens a curiosity about where we come from, where we go, and what it means. In The Depositions, Lynch continues to illuminate not only how we die, but also how we live"-- Provided by publisher.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 814.54 L987 Available 33111009407285
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 814.54 L987 Available 33111009558509
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

For nearly four decades, poet, essayist, and small-town funeral director Thomas Lynch has probed relations between the literary and mortuary arts. His life's work with the dead and the bereaved has informed four previous collections of nonfiction, each exploring identity and humanity with Lynch's signature blend of memoir, meditation, gallows humor, and poetic precision.

The Depositions provides an essential selection from these masterful collections--essays on fatherhood, Irish heritage, funeral rites, and the perils of bodiless obsequies--as well as new essays in which the space between Lynch's hyphenated identities--as an Irish American, undertaker-poet--is narrowed by the deaths of poets, the funerals of friends, the loss of neighbors, intimate estrangements, and the slow demise of a beloved dog.

In "Gladstone," from The Undertaking, Lynch reflects on his then twenty-five years as an undertaker at the Midwinter Conference for Michigan funeral directors, which incongruously takes place on an island in the Caribbean. With brutal, generous honesty, "The Way We Are," from Bodies in Motion and at Rest, grapples with Lynch's time as a single parent coming to terms with generations of his family inheritance of alcoholism and recovery. The press of the author's own mortality animates the new essays, sharpening a curiosity about where we come from, where we go, and what it means.

As Alan Ball writes in a penetrating foreword, Lynch's work allows us "to see both the absurdity and the beauty of death, sometimes simultaneously." With this landmark collection, he continues to illuminate not only how we die, but also how we live.

Foreword by Alan Ball -- from THE UNDERTAKING : The undertaking ; Gladstone ; Crapper ; The right hand of the Father ; The golfatorium ; Tract -- from BODIES IN MOTION AND AT REST : Introduction ; Bodies in motion and at rest ; Fish stories ; Y2Kat ; The way we are ; Reno -- from BOOKING PASSAGE : Introduction- The ethnography of everyday life ; The brother ; The same but different ; The sisters Godhelpus -- from THE GOOD FUNERAL : How we come to be the ones we are ; The theory and practice of cremation -- NEW ESSAYS : Introit ; Miracles ; Moveable and steadfast feasts ; Whence & whither ; The done thing.

"A wry and compassionate selection of essays reflecting on mortals and mortality, from the acclaimed author of The Undertaking. For nearly four decades, poet, essayist, and small- town funeral director Thomas Lynch has probed relations between the literary and mortuary arts. His life's work with the dead and the bereaved has informed four previous collections of nonfiction, each exploring identity and humanity with Lynch's signature blend of memoir, meditation, gallows humor, and poetic precision. The Depositions provides an essential selection from these masterful collections, as well as new essays in which the space between Lynch's hyphenated identities-as an Irish American, undertaker-poet-is narrowed by the deaths of poets, the funerals of friends, the loss of neighbors, intimate estrangements, and the slow demise of a beloved dog. Meanwhile, the press of the author's own mortality sharpens a curiosity about where we come from, where we go, and what it means. In The Depositions, Lynch continues to illuminate not only how we die, but also how we live"-- Provided by publisher.

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