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The Removers: A Memoir Hardcover – July 15, 2014

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Andrew Meredith (Author)
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Andrew Meredith (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 72 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Scribner (July 15, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1476761213
  • ISBN-13: 978-1476761213
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #720,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsThis one needs the Reeves.
By SInohey TOP 1000 REVIEWER on August 3, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
Coming of age angst-laden memoir of a young man tormented by his relationship of an emotionally unavailable father whom he admired and loathed simultaneously. The father was fired from his position as professor of literature at La Salle University, allegedly for inappropriately groping female students. This fractured the family but his estranged parents remained living together, hardly speaking to each other, in the same row house with him and his younger sister for eight more years.

The author holds nothing back, from the turmoil of his family, his first and many sexual dalliances, growing up in the dilapidated Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood of Frankford, dropping out of college at his junior year, drifting from one place to another and his inability to hold on to a job. Jobless, rudderless and with no immediate prospects, Andrew returns back home; where in the meantime his father is now employed as a teacher in Camden and works as a "remover" to supplement his income.

Andrew is hired by his father’s employer, the Livery of Frankford, as a remover; to carry, transport and deliver dead bodies from their place of death to the morgue, mortuary or crematorium - where they are dissected, embalmed or cremated. The author’s descriptive narrative of his experiences as a “remover” and later on, at the crematorium, is at once sombre, grotesque and sometimes humourous. =No spoilers=

Working alongside his father, Andrew’s childhood resentment gradually changes into acceptance of the man’s foibles, and even admiration, “If I’d just met him on the job, he would’ve been my favorite guy to work with”. He has found redemption and absolution in life through the prism of inevitable death.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsA well-written memoir with decent insight, but I wanted more dead bodies!
By Ryan J. Dejonghe TOP 500 REVIEWER on July 15, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
Come on, I wanted more dead bodies! Yes, I know I'm a sicko, but the description made THE REMOVERS sound fifty percent love-you-dad and fifty percent eww-that's-gross. What I got was about ninety percent hug-fest and ten percent blood-bombs.

The writing is good. For instance, visualize as you read this, "At the rec center baseball diamond across the street, screams of "Go!" follow an aluminum plink. At the corner, tulips in yellow, red, violet, planted to partition the sidewalk from a tiny row house lawn, salute a crew-cut man in a tank top, gold crucifix swinging as he soapy-sponges his four-wheeled stereo." Beautiful painting of Americana, right? Just imagine how these words wrap around decayed dead bodies. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I wanted more. About dead bodies, this book is not for the squeamish. You'll read as the author describes a three-week-old body that "feels like squeezing a Ziploc bag filled with tomato sauce." Or, of the crematorium, "the smell of burning meat, or worse, boiling rivulets of body fat leaking out the front door of the machine, dripping down into the processing pan and onto the floor, leaving a grotesque cleanup task and an aromatic cocktail of chalk dust, basement mold, and the burnt black drippings in a roast pan." Yummy. There's maybe ten such descriptions in the whole book. That's it.

A majority of the book is kumbaya with the friends, family, and neighbors. That's okay, I like that kind of stuff (even though I wanted a higher percentage of bodies). As you can see, the author is quite talented with words, but what drove me batty was his method of mashing topics together. One paragraph he'd be describing hoeing through body parts in the burner, the very next paragraph he'd continue a story about his father touching young college girls.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsA gripping memoir
By Marc on July 20, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I cannot be any more effusive in my praise of Mr. Meredith's work. He lays bare the fears and insecurities of his formative years and reveals himself to be an extremely gifted storyteller. I look forward to great things from Mr Meredith in the future.
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4.0 out of 5 starsI loved the review and could not stop till I finished ...
By Radhika Annadata on July 19, 2014
Format: Hardcover
I loved the review and could not stop till I finished reading it- a big deal for me as I get bored easily. It is a riveting narrative that draws you in- the vivid descriptions are so real that I could visualize myself standing on the doorstep in the dark watching the buses roll by; I could smell the putrid smell of Carl's body. The jumping back and forth between the present and his thoughts/ his past is engaging; the detailed description of the setting and people mesmerizing and encompassing. Andrew Meredith has a gift with words and I can't wait to finish reading the whole book!
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3.0 out of 5 starsSome Thoughts On Corpse Takeout
By Teresa Willett on September 25, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
The trouble with corpse takeout is that it isn't deeply satisfying --- and, like Chinese takeout, doesn't stay with you, either. When one reads an extraordinary book (like my favorite coming-of-age memoir, "The Tender Bar"), the reader is likely to feel something akin to grief upon its completion, and an inability to immediately move on to something else. While you will not experience that with Andrew Meredith's book, does it mean that it's not worth reading? I'll leave that up to you. There IS a story here (that probably would have worked best as a lengthy magazine piece) and some top-notch writing, at times. (It can be satisfying to read a talented writer's less than stellar first book, when one expects him to later flourish within another genre.) I can also see this book appealing to other directionless young men who might relate to Meredith's frequent failings and youthful unreadiness to apply himself. (It doesn't matter so much the reason for this foot-dragging --- a father's foolish and embarrassing firing that throws a tomb-like pall over a family for many years, or just a lack of motivation and confidence.) That type of reader is also less likely to find the typical early adulthood sex, drinking, and hanging out parts (though not excessive) as tiresome as I did. Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not comment on the ever-present dreariness --- regarding family, location, and job. With nothing to offset all this funereal somberness, the pages might become heavy for some. (I had no problem picking this book up --- or putting it down, and I enjoyed the "by handling the dead, makes peace with the living" aspect of the story.) All things considered, I am not sorry that I read this, and I look forward to seeing livelier things from Andrew Meredith in the future. (For those of you interested in the "lives" of cadavers, I highly recommend "Stiff" by Mary Roach.)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsWas Hoping for More Removals

Many years ago, my husband had a part-time job as a Remover. He had lots of interesting stories to tell so I was hoping for 'The Removers' to carry on where my husband left off. Read more

Published 1 month ago by pegmcdaniel
4.0 out of 5 starsI read this book swiftly and found it interesting, ...

I read this book swiftly and found it interesting, if not a bit disjointed. There was alternatively a ton of description and then I found myself wondering more about some of the... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Nikki Murray
5.0 out of 5 starsThis is really a terrific little book

This is really a terrific little book, deceptively simply written, an easy read, but not empty calories at all. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Diana
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

OK

Published 5 months ago by Betty
5.0 out of 5 starsA deeply moving, thought-provoking Memoir!

This is a deeply thought-provoking, well-written Memoir about a young man's childhood and family. Torn apart by his father's dismissal from La Salle University and his family's... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Aim1107
5.0 out of 5 starsA lovely piece of work

A beautifully written memoir...I can't analyze why and how it happened but the book just crept right in and kept me engaged the whole way through, I look forward to this writer's... Read more

Published 5 months ago by Amy in L.A.
5.0 out of 5 starsGood Reading

Very well written. Since I lived in this neighborhood, it was especially interesting. Also gave good insight into the funeral business (especially cremation).

Published 7 months ago by Barbara Green
3.0 out of 5 starsFledge, meredith, before I kill myself.

while it follows the rule to make the memoirist the most flawed character in the book, this particular book was too bleak even for me who likes bleak. Read more

Published 7 months ago by GlamourPuss
5.0 out of 5 starsNice read! Easy and comfortable

Nice read! Easy and comfortable....fast & quick.

Published 7 months ago by S. Johnson
5.0 out of 5 starsVery thoughtful

I enjoyed reading this book more than I expected to. I was looking for an unusual subject to read about and it turned out to be much more.

Published 7 months ago by Amber

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