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Thomas Lynch
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The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade Paperback – September 1, 1998

by Thomas Lynch (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 517 ratings
Thomas Lynch serves his readership as a poet and memoirist, and his townspeople as a funeral director. In this wholly unique collection of essays, the two vocations meet as Lynch shows himself to be a competent functionary of mourning--dispensing comfort and homespun wisdom to the grief-stricken--as well as a poet poignantly tuning language to the right tones of private release. He is also a man of sardonic wit, uncovering humor where we least thought to find it--in our fear of and fascination with death. In its homages to parents who have died and to children who shouldn't have, its tales of golfers tripping over grave markers, portraits of gourmands and hypochondriacs, lovers and suicides, The Undertaking displays an impressively wide vocal range--from solemn, nostalgic, and lyrical to acerbic, sprightly, and unflinchingly professional.
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  1. Print length
    202 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Books
  4. Publication date
    September 1, 1998
  5. Reading age
    18 years and up
  6. Dimensions
    5.24 x 0.61 x 7.76 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0140276238
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0140276237
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (September 1, 1998)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 202 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140276238
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140276237
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.24 x 0.61 x 7.76 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 517 ratings

About the author

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Thomas Lynch

Thomas Lynch

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Thomas Lynch's stories, poems, and essays have appeared in Granta, The Atlantic, Harper’s, the Times (of London, New York, Ireland, and Los Angeles), and elsewhere. "The Undertaking" was a finalist for the National Book Award; he is also the author of "Still Life in Milford," "Booking Passage," "Apparition & Late Fictions" and "Walking Papers." Lynch lives in Milford, Michigan, and West Clare, Ireland.

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
517 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this book to be a beautiful collection of essays about life and death, with well-phrased humor and a personal touch that provides consolation. The writing quality is praised, with one customer noting the author's skillful use of language.

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61 customers mention "Readability"56 positive5 negative

Customers find the book engaging and enjoyable to read, describing it as an excellent collection of essays.

"...At any rate, his book is very much worth reading. -- Debra Hamel" Read more

"...But all are well worth reading and pondering...." Read more

"This is an amazing book. The author’s take on life and death is startling in its point of view...." Read more

"This is a great read on life from one who frames it in its final day. I read it out of curiosity about starting a new career in the funeral industry...." Read more

44 customers mention "Insight"41 positive3 negative

Customers find the book insightful and thought-provoking, with one customer noting its often-humorous take on life and death, while another shares how it provides good insight into the funeral director profession.

"...The book is beautifully written throughout, and thoughtful, and despite all that I've said above the author comes across as a man fully alive, who..." Read more

"...expenses - as well as the grief suffered by family and friends, assisted suicide, societal norms for dealing with death...." Read more

"...In so doing, he also relates a succinct history of the death industry, but still manages to wax nostalgic and poetic for the way things were...." Read more

"...A great mix of the in your face reality of death as well as a tenderness that only someone who deals with the dead can give...." Read more

41 customers mention "Writing quality"34 positive7 negative

Customers praise the writing quality of the book, describing it as a beautifully written collection of essays about life, with one customer noting the author's skillful use of language.

"...thoughtful, and despite all that I've said above the author comes across as a man fully alive, who appreciates life but understands death, as a man..." Read more

"...by Thomas Lynch, who is not only a small-town undertaker but a published poet...." Read more

"This is a charming book, one that feeds my own desire and interest in writing because Lynch is, first of all, a humanitarian, and a poet who closely..." Read more

"...I appreciated his skillful use of language, crafting prose that is rich and full. I found myself not just reading but savoring this book...." Read more

14 customers mention "Humor"14 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's well-phrased humor and lyrical style, with one customer highlighting the author's keen Irish wit.

"...related to the tending of the dead and their families, and some are lyrical and ruminative about our existence and the extinguishing of it...." Read more

"...These essays are more lyric than memoir, and Mr. Lynch’s background in poetry shines through in all of them...." Read more

"...but the book is beautifully and artfully written, is funny and quirky in parts, is sad in others, and to me is written in a way to..." Read more

"...It is more poetic and philosphical than descriptive, but this is not a fault. Lynch is brilliant. His insights are intuitive and thought provoking...." Read more

5 customers mention "Pacing"5 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the pacing of the book, finding it tender and consoling, with one customer noting its celebratory tone.

"...A great mix of the in your face reality of death as well as a tenderness that only someone who deals with the dead can give...." Read more

"...Dismal Trade" is not dismal at all, but a ministry of love, consolation and compassion...." Read more

"...I think I expected something dour, without the insight. It's tender, charming, cleverly written and a joy to read...." Read more

"...This remarkable little volume is not dismal but celebratory...." Read more

Book arrived
3 out of 5 stars
Book arrived
on time, but definitely not in very good condition. The book arrived without a jacket cover and with a label stuck on the book that can’t be removed without causing damage. There is writing in the inside cover and some water damage.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Debra Hamel
    5.0 out of 5 stars A collection of thoughtful, beautifully written essays [4.5 stars]
    Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    The Undertaking is a series of essays by Thomas Lynch, a man whose twin trades, unusual enough in themselves, and more so in combination, make him particularly suited to write on the themes of the book: he is both a poet and an undertaker. In the book Lynch writes about his day job--not the gory bits of the business, but about what it's like to care for the dead in the small town of Milford, Michigan, where very often he's burying someone with whom he's had a history in life:

    "After my housekeeper was installed, I went to thank Milo and pay the bill. The invoices detailed the number of loads, the washers and the dryers, detergent, bleaches, fabric softeners. I think the total came to sixty dollars. When I asked Milo what the charges were for pick-up and delivery, for stacking and folding and sorting by size, for saving my life and the lives of my children, for keeping us in clean clothes and towels and bed linen, 'Never mind that' is what Milo said. 'One hand washes the other.'

    "I place Milo's right hand over his left hand, then try the other way. Then back again. Then I decide that it doesn't matter. One hand washes the other either way."

    Lynch's specific recollections--about suicides he's known and cleaned up after, about embalming his own father--serve as entree to larger discussions--the function of funerals, the problem of assisted suicide, or, in a heart-breaking chapter, how we grow into the fear of parenting. The dark possibilities that haunt the rest of us are more real for an undertaker:

    "And as my children grew, so too the bodies of dead boys and girls I was called upon to bury--infants becoming toddlers, toddlers becoming school children, children becoming adolescents, then teens, then young adults, whose parents I would know from the Little League or Brownies or PTA or Rotary or Chamber of Commerce. Because I would not keep in stock an inventory of children's caskets, I'd order them, as the need arose, in sizes and half sizes from two foot to five foot six, often estimating the size of a dead child, not yet released from the county morgue, by the sizes of my own children, safe and thriving and alive. And the caskets I ordered were invariably 'purity and gold' with angels on the corners and shirred crepe interiors or powdery pink or baby blue. And I would never charge more than the wholesale cost of the casket and throw in our services free of charge with the hope in my heart that God would, in turn, spare me the hollowing grief of these parents."

    The book is beautifully written throughout, and thoughtful, and despite all that I've said above the author comes across as a man fully alive, who appreciates life but understands death, as a man worth knowing. At any rate, his book is very much worth reading.

    -- Debra Hamel
    18 people found this helpful
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  • Richda D. McNutt
    5.0 out of 5 stars Not So Dismal After All
    Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2017
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    I enjoyed every moment of this book of essays by Thomas Lynch, who is not only a small-town undertaker but a published poet. Some of the essays concern practical issues related to the tending of the dead and their families, and some are lyrical and ruminative about our existence and the extinguishing of it. But all are well worth reading and pondering. There is discussion of the preparation of the body for the funeral home 'visitation,' caskets, cremation, expenses - as well as the grief suffered by family and friends, assisted suicide, societal norms for dealing with death. And in the midst of all this seriousness, there is irony and humor. We should all have a Thomas Lynch in our lives when the time comes that his services are needed.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Nancy A
    4.0 out of 5 stars love, sex
    Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    A Poet’s Take on Life, Death, And Everything in Between

    The Undertaking: Life Studies From the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch. W.W. Norton & Company 1997 $13.95.

    “This is none of my business”, Thomas Lynch proclaims about his funeral, and yet, it is his: funeral director, mortician, undertaker, poet. Mr. Lynch is an Irish poet who here presents a dozen essays about his stock in trade, deftly weaving together anecdotes of the dead with funeral conventions and all manner of his profession.

    These essays are more lyric than memoir, and Mr. Lynch’s background in poetry shines through in all of them. In one, the reader is reminded, or perhaps the author is reminding himself, that “the dead don’t care” whether their bodies are cremated, buried, scattered, or left to science. Another essay targets the author’s upbringing with an overprotective, mortician father who sees death lingering around every corner. It is only when the author becomes both a father and funeral director himself that he sees the wisdom of his late father’s intense scrutiny.

    If there is any fault in these reflections, it is that the author tends to go on at length, over the course of several essays, about re-connecting with his Irish roots. Visiting family overseas turns him to introspection about both the country of Ireland and his Catholic rearing. Lynch draws interesting parallels between the plumbing and funeral business and man’s return to the natural world. In so doing, he also relates a succinct history of the death industry, but still manages to wax nostalgic and poetic for the way things were.

    No aspect of life, or death, is left unmentioned in this tome. The book starts off endearingly with the author’s own immature views of undertaking as a child: “And I wondered why it wasn’t underputter—you know, for the one who puts them underground.” Lynch meanders through the embalming process, obsesses about the positioning of a body, discusses Dr. Kevorkian’s method of self-euthanasia, love, sex, grief, and divorce. In one amusing essay Lynch ponders the possibilities of a combination golf course and cemetery, and the semantics of such a scheme. Another essay finds the author wandering the streets of his small town in Michigan, musing on local celebrities and their influence in getting a new town bridge built. Uncle Eddie is the star of yet another essay wherein he starts a crime scene clean-up business while Lynch relates his own experiences in the matter.

    Some essay topics may be too delicate a subject for certain readers, such as when Lynch examines the issue of children’s funerals and purchases of child-sized coffins of pink or blue. About dispensing advice for consumers, or even his own final preparations, the author appeals to the average person’s emotions: “Whatever’s there to feel, feel it—the riddance, the relief, the fright, and freedom, the fear of forgetting, the dull ache of your own mortality…you’ll know what to do. Go now, I think you are ready.”
    15 people found this helpful
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  • Richard D. Trimmer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing read
    Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2022
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    This is an amazing book. The author’s take on life and death is startling in its point of view. A great mix of the in your face reality of death as well as a tenderness that only someone who deals with the dead can give. Written in 1996 his take on that world and the current one is remarkably accurate. Can’t recommend this book enough.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Jamie noland
    3.0 out of 5 stars It’s good but not great
    Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2025
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    Very repetitive
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  • R2D4
    5.0 out of 5 stars Loved This Book - A Hidden Tome on Living
    Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2022
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    This is a great read on life from one who frames it in its final day. I read it out of curiosity about starting a new career in the funeral industry. In reality it made me think deeply about the temporal nature of my own existence and how society treats death amongst the living. Memento Mori!
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • cerrig
    5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing dismal here- just wisdom, compassion and wit
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 28, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    An extraordinary book, to put it mildly. I reckon the insights are hard-earned, and long matured. I could write about his style, but "style" can suggest something ornamental or separate from what he has to say. Surely the point about his poignant-written thoughts and observations, and his witty, beautifully judged comic passages is that they simply sound like the man himself, they have a well-wrought authenticity about them, they way hey are written is the whole point of them. Wordy,, one reviewer says. Well, only in the best sense.

    I'm a funeral celebrant, and I find his insights to be hugely resonant and helpful, his compassion and honesty exemplary- and he's bloody funny too! I just hope a lot of people read this book who are nothing to do with the end of life, with death and funerals- because as a reviewer says, this is a book about life, and how to live it better by thinking and feeling your way a little more closely towards death- just for a quick sneak, before rushing back to the telly, the saloon bar, the garden....

    This book deserves to be a classic. He's a really fine writer in one of the best U.S. traditions, the down-to-earth voice from a frontier of some sort, unruffled but deeply moved.
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  • FortLarryRidge
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully expressed
    Reviewed in Canada on March 29, 2021
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    This book has enriched the landscape of the "last goodbye". Hilarious by turns, yet tender. I appreciated the candour and boldness in handling controversial subjects. So much I had not considered. Inspiring, entertaining,
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  • Greengoop
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read!!
    Reviewed in Canada on May 25, 2019
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    Saw the PBS show first then got the book.. excellent book.. Thomas Lynch is an incredible writer!!
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  • Dark knight dreaming
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 19, 2016
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    A beautiful incite to a world that affects all of us but few know what it means to deal with death upclose and personal. Written with an open heart and wonderful, humorous prose this is a must read.
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  • CS
    4.0 out of 5 stars Peep behind the scenes
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    An interesting look at life and death from an Undertaker's point of view. Very well written and thought-provoking. Amusing yet serious. Well worth the read.
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