Customer Reviews

The Funeral Makers

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm in a small book group and was a bit wary of choosing this due to the title - I didn't want another morbid, dysfuntional story. Though this is about various dysfunctional families - it's funny. I think we could all see someone we know in many of these characters perhaps even ourselves. A quick read - you always want to find out what happens next - I love that in a book.

How in the world have I missed reading this author's work? Many thanks to the Amazon reviewers for introducing me to Cathie Pelletier. This novel is excellent, the woman knows how to write a story. The trials and tribulations of the McKinnon family makes for some poignant and hilarious reading. As one of the reviewers on the book jacket states it really is like a "Northern Southern" novel, only it's far better than most of the "Southern" genre I have read. The quality of the writing is top-notch, I will absolutly be reading other work by this author. Five stars without hesitation!

Let's make no bones about it. Maine native Cathie Pelletier is easily the most talented writer out there on the Maine fiction landscape, bar none. With "The Funeral Makers", Pelletier introduces us to the isolated and tiny Mattagash, Maine, nestled beside the St. John River at the Canadian border. Though loosely inspired by the politics in her hometown (Allagash, Maine), this wonderful hoot of a novel created a bit of a stir back home nonetheless. "The Funeral Makers" follows the ongoing feud between the two most visible families in Mattagash: the self-designated monarchic clan of the community, the MacKinnons; and the Giffords, the rowdy, irreverant and always-procreating scapegoats. Not since Carolyn Chute's "The Beans of Egypt, Maine" have we met so troubled, or so human a brood. As you loathe the behavior, you can't help but admire the spirit which keeps them going. The story of the quintessential dysfunctional family gathered for the impending death of one of their own, this novel seamlessly weaves plot after complex subplot in a disturbing and often hilarious crazy quilt of small-town angst. The character of Amy Joy Lawler, who returns in "The Funeral Maker"'s two sequels ("Once Upon a Time On the Banks", "The Weight of Winter"), emerges as the bubblegum-snapping, too-wise-for-her-years heroine who challenges the world order in Mattagash and becomes the launchpad for her older lover's bedhopping through the generations of her family. Reading Cathie Pelletier is a pleasure so rich, so fulfilling, that you hate to leave Mattagash behind, though at the same time it's a place most of us would never wish to visit.

The family gathers for the pending death of Marge. Sisters Pearl and Sicily get along well with each other, but the positive feelings end there. Sicily's daughter is 13 and has a crush on a 32-year-old low life thief. Her husband is an alcoholic. Pearl's husband and son are undertakers-whoops, I mean funeral directors--, and her wimpy daughter has a son who might be a good candidate for an exorcism. This family has a series of misadventures throughout the book: their car ends up in a river with them in it; a rape takes place; a car is stolen; little son of satan demolishes a hotel room. And it's all quite hilarious.

This is Sinclair Lewis's Main Street gone seriously bad. CP's characters are well developed, despite the dark humor. The author has much affection for them despite her tendency to stick pins in their suffering bodies. The humor finally subsides later in the book, as Ms Pelletier shows us people who do and some who do not struggle on after seeing the failure of their lives' ambitions. These are imperfect people living in a far from perfect world.

Ultimately this is a very serious book, and unless you share my love of black humor, you might be a bit perplexed by the whole thing. Cathie Pelletier is a very talented writer.

In reading "The Funeral Makers", the authoress drew out a wide set of emotions from one end of the spectrum to the other with melancholy leading to laughter and curiousity leading to self-made conclusions unraveling as the plot carried me through a winding road of unexpected twists and turns. This book was a page turner if ever there was one. I could scarcely put it down. The characters seemed to call out to me to "unearth" the secrets contained in this treasure of a book! You will enjoy each character's depth and will discover what makes them tick. Ms. Pelletier delves into the psyches of the characaters to provide each with a multidimensional image. Once you have finished reading "The Funeral Makers", you will be moved to pick up another of Cathie Pelletier's writing masterpieces. Enjoy!!

I was looking for something else to read other than my political books that seem to be devouring me lately and I happened to run across this book. I had read it a few years ago and thought, I'd read it again.

This is a book that you can read again in different periods of your life. The first time I read it, I found it funny. This time, I found it tragic as well as funny. It also has a wistful tone to it as well. Life speeds by before you even realize it.

The Ivys come to town in preparation for Mrs. Ivy Sr.'s wife, whose sister, Marge, is on her deathbed. Pearl had left her hometown ~~ more like escape her hometown to become a beautican only to marry an undertaker, or a "funeral director" as the Ivys like to call it. Then there is Sicily Lawler, the youngest sister who married the high school principal and her daughter, Amy Jo, who is enthralled with her first love, a Gifford. And this is their stories. It is just a story of a typical family in the late 50s. They are just as human as we are, with lost loves, disappointment and fears. They also trimpuh over ordeals, imagined or real.

This is a fun novel to read ~~ it takes you away into places forgotten or just barely remembered. It makes you long for your family again and the flush of youth. It makes you stop and count your lucky stars for where you are in life right now.

6-4-04

This a great read - with a mix of humor and pathos that flow smoothly between one another. Memorable characters and an eye for the land and the seasons, put Pelletier in league with some of the great American writers.

This book will play with all possible emotions. It
is very funny and sad at the same time. The caracters
are everyday people trying to cope with the ups and
downs of life. The author Cathy Pelletier is new to me
but I will surely read every book she puts out. Get this
book and enjoy. A refreshing read.

I don't know how long it's been since I first read this book. It was so talked about when it first appeared that it seemed NECESSARY to read it. I still can't forget it, and so the other day I picked up my battered old copy and read it again. Same as the first time: I truly couldn't put it down. Since my first read, I've seen RAISING ARIZONA. Remember the role Nick Cage played? Well, that's Chester Lee. Funny, sexy, endearing, godawful, terrible, you name it. What a great first novel. I have since gone out of my way to read all of Pelletier's novels, and I keep pestering the local bookstore for news of when she'll have another out. That's how I found out she is also K. C. McKinnon, and will read those next. I miss Mattagash, Maine even as I write these words. It's a place I've come to know and love from this author's trilogy.

Don't listen to the Kennedy nonsense below. He was running for office long before he was elected. (That's the nature of an election!)So look past this and read what the publisher called one of the best books of the decade. Funny, sad, and witty as they come.