Dirt (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THE TROUBLE didn't seem to start so much as it simply landed, like a hunk of blazing debris..." (more)
Key Phrases: viewing parlor, tour path, memorial society, Billy Guilder, Carl Rosen, Palm Grove (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After Quince Bishop gets into a fistfight with eco-activists who disrupt his best friend's funeral, his journalist ex-girlfriend covers the story and a beautiful funeral-rights advocate gets involved, upending poor Quince's lackadaisical life. But that's nothing compared to the funeral-biz scams he unearths in Sean Doolittle's uproarious first novel, Dirt.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

On a clear autumn L.A. morning, sitting in the front row of his best friend's funeral, professional loafer Quince Bishop can't think of anything more depressing than watching yet another loved one being lowered into the ground—until a band of guerilla environmentalists crash the ceremony to deliver a lecture on the high cost of dying in America. One violent impulse later, Quince finds himself up to his waist in dirt ... and he hasn't even begun to dig himself a hole. With the help of beautiful funeral-rights advocate Maria Casteneda—not to mention the complicated ambitions of reporter and perennial ex-girlfriend Melanie Roth—Quince learns just how an unscrupulous funeral director can turn death into a high-class living. Unable to let buried skeletons lie, Quince Bishop unwittingly sets himself on a collision course with two entrepreneurial ex-cons who are hatching a burial plot of their own. Chaos, confusion, and double-dealing are on the program, and only one thing is certain: all paths lead to the cemetery.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Uglytown Productions; 1st edition (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096634734X
• ISBN-13: 978-0966347340
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #616,218 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious "Dirt" Digs Deep into Dastardly Doings, June 11, 2001

By	M. Perry "mr_badmood" (Fairmont, West Virginia USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Breezy, fast-paced, and filled with sardonic humor, Sean Doolittle's first novel DIRT hits the ground running with a frantic fist-fight at a funeral and doesn't stop until the final page. Offering a fresh twist of seriously black humor in a genre known more for muted sarcasm, DIRT is a thriller that rewards and delights on many levels.

Unlike most crime fiction heroes, the somewhat hapless Quince Bishop -- an aging slacker and passive romantic living off a family trust fund -- spends most of the novel being pummeled, kicked, and beaten repeatedly (and those are his better days). Paired with self-appointed funeral consumer advocate Marie Castaneda, Bishop accidentally uncovers the dastardly doings of Joel Moss, whose manic-depressive self-loathing is matched only by his disdain for the dearly departed he "inters" at his Palm Grove Cemetery.

Assisting Moss in his shady scheme are Carl Rosen and Billy Guilder, two low-life thugs enjoying a taste of freedom after many years in prison. Guilder's gentle spirit provides for a surprising plot turn, but Rosen's cunning and penchant for violence render him a truly formidable and scary crime villain.

DIRT is more than just another Quentin Tarantino or Dutch Leonard wanna-be crime tale. Author Doolittle plants his action squarely against the backdrop of the funeral industry, and when you're not gaping at the profession's practices, you just might find yourself guffawing. Think Donald Westlake sipping bourbon with Evelyn Waugh while collaborating on a rewrite of THE LOVED ONE and you're in the ball park here.

Doolittle's black sense of humor serves him well -- bad guy Rosen's Achilles' heel is a delightfully painful running gag -- and is punched up by a sleek writing style honed after many years writing horror short fiction. (Stints as a journalist have been valuable, too -- witness Chapter 21, a hilarious account of a funeral home convention told entirely through the notes of a newspaper reporter).

Despite the body count, Doolittle's big heart shines through grandly: after the obligatory sexual encounter, the novel's hero and heroine actually take time to talk to each other about death and religion and watch THE BIG SLEEP on TV. No hip one-liners from too-cool characters here, just two desperate people learning how to reach out to each other.

There's a lot going on beneath the surface of DIRT. The wise reader will take no time digging in.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Down and Dirty, September 24, 2002

By	Jennifer Jordan "Editor, EXPLETIVE DELETED" (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dirt
Sean Dolittle
2001
ISBN 0-9663473-4-X
Uglytown
Mystery

The opening line of this book is my main selling point when thrusting this book into the hands of hapless strangers on the street. After a stunned glance at the fervor in my eyes and a quick read of said first line, I've got a convert on my hands.

"The trouble didn't seem to start so much as it simply landed, like a hunk of blazing debris." Are you converted? Nonetheless, I shall plod on...

If I tell you I trust in the savvy, fluid humor of this confection for the mind more than I trust my own mother, would you trust me? What if I told you of my jaded past as a reader of trite, already read plots by apathetic authors not-to-be-named, dismantled and set aside by this sardonic, very human novel exposing the lurid underbelly of the undertaking business?

Quince Bishop is yanked into this twisted tale by an ill-spoken "guerrilla" brandishing a gun at a friend's funeral and soon finds himself in an underground world exacting a punishment of frequent beatings as an entrance fee. A beautiful consumer advocate and saucy reporter ex-girlfriend spur him on as he takes on a manic-depressive nemesis and his ganja addled, ex-con sidekick. You and Quince find out more about the funeral industry than you ever wanted to know as he sinks deeper in. How he digs himself out of it is better reveled by reading the book than reading this review. So stop reading this and go buy this book.

And I have one word for the author. More.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Digging through Dirt shows a gem, October 14, 2001

By	J. Jordan "Editor of Crimespree Magazine" (milwaukee, wi United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I picked up this book because the name intrigued me. I'm glad I did. The book itself is beautiful, so I'll be looking for more from uglytown. Sean Doolittle writes some very colorful characters and a has a wonderful ability to turn a phrase that makes the book come alive.

The main character, Quince Bishop, is burying a freind. And the funeral is ruined by protesters. But they are not who they seem as Quince soon finds out by befriending the head of the group they claim to represent, Maria Casteneda. With the help of his ex-girlfriend Quince finds out more about the funeral business than he would every want to know.

I enjoyed this book greatly and hope to see more of Quince and his friends. And I know that I'll be buying Doolittle's next book