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Title: The Joy of Funerals: A Novel in Stories by Alix Strauss ISBN: 0-312-30917-1 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 14 May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Joy of the Joy of Funerals
Comment: Let's not talk about the intelligence of the narrative- (a series of seemingly unrelated short stories all involving death and funerals that culminate in one final story that tie them all together) or the insight it probably required to create so many consistently rich and unique, characters who (although are all somehow influenced if not obsessed with death and dying) are still fundamentally vital human beings. Let's not even talk about the ease in which one slips into each story or the humor that comes from each character's [very real] specificity.
On a purely technical level, Strauss' writing is innovative, her word choice and narrative/structural choices are wholly well informed and on all levels serve to draw the reader into what is already, in itself, a very delicate and delicious subject matter.
She is a writer's writer with a rare insight that makes the rest of today's Urban interest fiction seem bland and flavorless, no offense to The Devil Wears Prada...
Anyone who has been fortunate enough to have seen the beauty in something which had till then been otherwise discounted as worthless, taboo, disgusting, ugly, or undesireable will immediately appreciate this book. Anyone who has not, should read it in hopes that someday they will.
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting, but Gravely Overrated
Comment: When Six Feet Under was first released, it got loads of press and great reviews. The combo of funeral-home lore and insights into off-kilter characters proved irresistible to critics and eventually viewers.This seems to be what Strauss is drawing on: the shock of death, inside info on the funeral industry and decidedly on-the-edge female characters all populate these stories.
Yet, somehow, where Six Feet Under makes you care about its characters both dead and alive, The Joy of Funerals feels like a parade of circus freaks. While the women who populate these stories sound morbidly fascinating-a recent widow who beds strange men near her husband's grave, a lesbian obsessed with finding her lover's killer-they come across as thinly drawn wackos. In attempting to say "everyone has a dark side" and "look at how deeply grief affects people," Strauss has come up with something that seems to trivialize both black humor and sadness.
Also, though the characters have different stories and different names, in the end, they all come across as having nearly the same voice. This bleeding together of narratives and mood continues in the last story, a novella that strings all of the tales together. It's heroine, Nina, who obsessively attends funerals in an attempt to be less lonely, ends up connected to all of the other "obits" in the book. It's an interesting idea, but it ends up not working. The other women's stories have become so indistinct at this point, that I ended up constantly turning back to the earlier chapters.
Rating: 5
Summary: Joy in Strange Places
Comment: Although I recently faulted Paul Theroux in his recent book for giving us what I thought were works-in-process for the same story, Alix Strauss has, in my opinion, successfully told her stories from different overlapping viewpoints. This is what I felt was lacking in the Theroux. With Struass you wonder if the title story came first and then the enrichments followed or whether the shorter stories were the burgeoning ideas that came together in the larger. No matter. It was all so skillfully done. Despite the act that the subject was a little tender for me having lost a loved one recently, Strauss's creative skills kept me involved with her ideas and never allowed me to stray into my own grieving ones. Despite the subject matter - a great read.
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Title: Sickened : The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory, Marc D. Feldman ISBN: 0553803077 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies) : True Tales of a Loudmouth Girl by LAURIE NOTARO ISBN: 0812969006 Publisher: Villard Pub. Date: 08 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: why I'm like this : True Stories by Cynthia Kaplan ISBN: 006051261X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere by Anna Gavalda, Karen L. Marker ISBN: 1573223557 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Dry: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs ISBN: 0312272057 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 02 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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