St. Burl's Obituary [Hardcover]

Daniel Akst (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1996

A burlesque of death, resurrection and dinner, this novel is a love story, a thriller, and an allegory on the state of modern manhood. When he stumbles one night into a gangland slaying Burleigh Bennett's life of moral virtue and culinary vice is turned upside down.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Transcending both the usual boundaries of the genre and the standard flaws of first novels, Akst's comic debut begins as a thriller about a journalist who witnesses a mob killing, then slowly evolves into an exploration of identity as experienced by a delightful protagonist who will invite comparisons to John Kennedy Toole's Ignatius Reilly. Burt Bennett is the 300-pound journalistic force of nature who's been banished to the obituary desk at the New York Tribune because of his cantankerous response to being edited. En route to a typically gourmet meal, Burl stumbles into a gangland-style slaying. After a brief period of enduring mob threats?and suffering through a failed stab at romance with fellow Trib reporter Norma Ruifelen?Burl vanishes, heading west to Las Vegas and then to Utah, where he hopes to research his epic poem about the life of Mormon leader Joe Smith. Instead, he becomes the object of affection for a gay Salt Lake City laundromat owner with a fat fetish. Alarmed at his rapidly expanding girth, Burl undergoes stomach reduction surgery, then engages in a spirited affair with a female cultist. When that romance fails, he takes on a new identity and returns to New York, where he attends his own funeral and begins anew his affair with Norma, who remains unaware that her lover is, in fact, Burl. Los Angeles Times reporter Akst handles the labyrinthian plot twists deftly, employing a style that is at once literate and funny as he explores contemporary links among food, sex, identity and death. But the true star here is Burl, whose appetites, charm, intellect and Houdini-like ability to get himself in and out of tight situations will win readers' minds and hearts.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Burl Bennett is an overweight obituary writer for a New York paper who stumbles into the aftermath of a mob killing in the restaurant he co-owns with an uncle. Eventually, intimidated by threats against his life, Burl leaves New York and heads out West on a bizarre odyssey. He winds up in Salt Lake City, where his weight continues to increase, until he literally gets stuck in the door of his hotel room. Burl has various adventures as his girth expands and contracts along with his economic status, and he explores every nuance of his own identity and what it means to be fat in contemporary America. The story comes full circle when Burl, having assumed someone else's identity, returns to New York, where he finally faces the issue of who he really is. Akst (Wonder Boy: Barry Minkow?the Kid Who Swindeled Wall Street, Scribner, 1990. o.p.) offers an amusing story; he writes lovingly about food, but Burl is by turns an engaging and repulsive hero. It's hard to predict what kind of audience this quirky novel will attract. Recommended for large fiction collections.?Dean James, Houston Acad. of Medicine/Texas Med. Ctr. Lib.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 370 pages
• Publisher: Macmurray & Beck Communication; First Edition ~1st Printing edition (May 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878448684
• ISBN-13: 978-1878448682
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,871,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel Akst is a writer whose columns, essays and reviews have appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Wilson Quarterly, Slate, Metropolis and many others. He's also the author of two novels and two nonfiction books. He works as an editorial writer at Newsday, on Long Island, where he also writes a weekly column that is distributed by the McClatchy-Tribune news service. For more information, visit www.akst.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, Erudite and Entertaining, November 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: St. Burl's Obituary (Paperback)

I've read this book several times and with each rereading find more to admire. It's rare to find a work that is at once original, erudite and unceasingly entertaining. It succeeds on several levels -- as a contemporary allegory, as a character study of the intelligent, funny and tormented-by-his-bulk Burl, and as a rollicking great yarn. Burl's enormous appetite is a terrific metaphor of our consumer society; his journeys through a hilariously gothic America and his virtual death and resurrection are the stuff of great literature.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars utterly funny and thought provoking, October 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: St. Burl's Obituary (Paperback)

This novel entertained me for as long as I could make the reading last. Please call Joel & Ethan Cohen and have them make a moovie of Burl.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nelmackel, May 25, 2005

By 

Douglas L. Nelson "Dougman" (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: St. Burl's Obituary (Paperback)

This was a great book. The reviewer 'Gluttony and Tedium' must have read a different book from what i read. I'd love to have dinner with Burl(before his obese-demise), just to share the joy of taste. This book is as good as the movie "The Big Night"--the transforming power of food, both good and bad is profound.