-
The Undertaking
- Life Studies from the Dismal Trade
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
"...I had come to know that the undertaking that my father did had less to do with what was done to the dead and more to do with what the living did about the fact of life that people died," Thomas Lynch muses in his preface to The Undertaking.
The same could be said for Lynch's book: ostensibly about death and its attendant rituals, The Undertaking is in the end about life. In each case, he writes, it is the one that gives meaning to the other. A funeral director in Milford, Michigan, Lynch is that strangest of hyphenates, a poet-undertaker, but according to Lynch, all poets share his occupation, "looking for meaning and voices in life and love and death."
Looking for meaning takes him to all sorts of unexpected places, both real and imagined. He embalms the body of his own father, celebrates the rebuilt bridge to his town's old cemetery, takes issue with the Jessica Mitfords of this world, and envisages a "golfatorium," a combination golf course and cemetery that could restore joy to the last rites. In "Crapper," Lynch even contemplates the subtleties of the modern flush toilet and its relationship to the messy business of dying: "Just about the time we were bringing the making of water and the movement of bowels into the house, we were pushing the birthing and marriage and sickness and dying out." Death and fatherhood, death and friendship, death and faith and love and poetry--these are the concerns that power Lynch's undertaking. Throughout, Lynch pleads the case for our dead--who are, after all, still living through us--with an eloquence marked by equal parts whimsy, wit, and compassion. In the last essay, "Tract," he envisions almost wistfully the funeral he'd choose for himself, and then relinquishes that, too. Funerals, after all, are for the living. The dead, he reminds us, don't care.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Mortuary Confidential
- Undertakers Spill the Dirt
- By: Todd Harra, Kenneth McKenzie
- Narrated by: Susan Larkin, Allan Robertson
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From shoot-outs at funerals to dead men screaming and runaway corpses, undertakers have plenty of unusual stories to tell - and a special way of telling them. In this macabre and moving compilation, funeral directors across the country share their most embarrassing, jaw-dropping, irreverent, and deeply poignant stories about life at death's door.
-
-
A wonderful read!
- By Grace Adele Spruiell on 12-25-22
By: Todd Harra, and others
-
Stiff
- The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For two thousand years, cadavers have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.
-
-
I worked with cadavers for years, but....
- By POQA on 11-11-12
By: Mary Roach
-
Confessions of a Funeral Director
- How the Business of Death Saved My Life
- By: Caleb Wilde
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Death. It happens to everyone, yet most of us don't want to talk about this final chapter of existence. Sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde intimately understands this reticence and fear. The son of an undertaker, he hesitated to embrace the legacy of running his family's business. Yet he discovered that caring for the deceased and their loved ones profoundly changed his faith and his perspective on death - and life itself.
-
-
Good Story, But narrator is the wrong guy
- By Dale R Clock on 01-17-18
By: Caleb Wilde
-
Deadhouse
- Life in a Coroner's Office
- By: John Temple
- Narrated by: Tim Lundeen
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deadhouse: Life in a Coroner's Office chronicles the exploits of a diverse team of investigators at a coroner's office in Pittsburgh. Ed Strimlan is a doctor who never got to practice medicine. Instead he discovers how people died. Mike Chichwak is a stolid ex-paramedic, respected around the office for his compassion and doggedness. Tiffani Hunt is 21, a single mother who questions whether she wants to spend her nights around dead bodies.
-
-
good read
- By lostinthewoods2 on 08-27-18
By: John Temple
-
Last Rites
- The Evolution of the American Funeral
- By: Todd Harra
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why do we embalm the deceased? Why are funerals so expensive? Is there a reason coffins are shaped the way they are? Where does the tradition of viewing the body come from? Ceremonies for honoring the deceased are crucial parts of our lives, but few people know where our traditional practices come from—and what they reveal about our history, culture, and beliefs about death. In Last Rites, author Todd Harra takes listeners on a fascinating exploration of American funeral customs—exploring where they came from, what they mean, and how they are still evolving.
By: Todd Harra
-
Working Stiff
- Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner
- By: Judy Melinek MD, T. J. Mitchell
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Judy Melinek began her training as a New York City forensic pathologist. With her husband and their toddler holding down the home front, Judy threw herself into the fascinating world of death investigation-performing autopsies, investigating death scenes, and counseling grieving relatives. Working Stiff chronicles Judy's two years of training, taking listeners behind the police tape of some of the most harrowing deaths in the Big Apple.
-
-
Great story - but not for the faint of heart!
- By R. Freeman on 08-20-14
By: Judy Melinek MD, and others
-
Mortuary Confidential
- Undertakers Spill the Dirt
- By: Todd Harra, Kenneth McKenzie
- Narrated by: Susan Larkin, Allan Robertson
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From shoot-outs at funerals to dead men screaming and runaway corpses, undertakers have plenty of unusual stories to tell - and a special way of telling them. In this macabre and moving compilation, funeral directors across the country share their most embarrassing, jaw-dropping, irreverent, and deeply poignant stories about life at death's door.
-
-
A wonderful read!
- By Grace Adele Spruiell on 12-25-22
By: Todd Harra, and others
-
Stiff
- The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For two thousand years, cadavers have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.
-
-
I worked with cadavers for years, but....
- By POQA on 11-11-12
By: Mary Roach
-
Confessions of a Funeral Director
- How the Business of Death Saved My Life
- By: Caleb Wilde
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Death. It happens to everyone, yet most of us don't want to talk about this final chapter of existence. Sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde intimately understands this reticence and fear. The son of an undertaker, he hesitated to embrace the legacy of running his family's business. Yet he discovered that caring for the deceased and their loved ones profoundly changed his faith and his perspective on death - and life itself.
-
-
Good Story, But narrator is the wrong guy
- By Dale R Clock on 01-17-18
By: Caleb Wilde
-
Deadhouse
- Life in a Coroner's Office
- By: John Temple
- Narrated by: Tim Lundeen
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deadhouse: Life in a Coroner's Office chronicles the exploits of a diverse team of investigators at a coroner's office in Pittsburgh. Ed Strimlan is a doctor who never got to practice medicine. Instead he discovers how people died. Mike Chichwak is a stolid ex-paramedic, respected around the office for his compassion and doggedness. Tiffani Hunt is 21, a single mother who questions whether she wants to spend her nights around dead bodies.
-
-
good read
- By lostinthewoods2 on 08-27-18
By: John Temple
-
Last Rites
- The Evolution of the American Funeral
- By: Todd Harra
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why do we embalm the deceased? Why are funerals so expensive? Is there a reason coffins are shaped the way they are? Where does the tradition of viewing the body come from? Ceremonies for honoring the deceased are crucial parts of our lives, but few people know where our traditional practices come from—and what they reveal about our history, culture, and beliefs about death. In Last Rites, author Todd Harra takes listeners on a fascinating exploration of American funeral customs—exploring where they came from, what they mean, and how they are still evolving.
By: Todd Harra
-
Working Stiff
- Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner
- By: Judy Melinek MD, T. J. Mitchell
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Judy Melinek began her training as a New York City forensic pathologist. With her husband and their toddler holding down the home front, Judy threw herself into the fascinating world of death investigation-performing autopsies, investigating death scenes, and counseling grieving relatives. Working Stiff chronicles Judy's two years of training, taking listeners behind the police tape of some of the most harrowing deaths in the Big Apple.
-
-
Great story - but not for the faint of heart!
- By R. Freeman on 08-20-14
By: Judy Melinek MD, and others
-
All the Living and the Dead
- From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life's Work
- By: Hayley Campbell
- Narrated by: Hayley Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fueled by a childhood fascination with death, journalist Hayley Campbell searches for answers in the people who make a living by working with the dead. Along the way, she encounters mass fatality investigators, embalmers, and a former executioner who is responsible for ending sixty-two lives. She meets gravediggers who have already dug their own graves, visits a cryonics facility in Michigan, goes for late-night Chinese with a homicide detective, and questions a man whose job it is to make crime scenes disappear.
-
-
Excellent
- By Noelle on 09-01-22
By: Hayley Campbell
-
Reclaiming Conversation
- The Power of Talk in a Digital Age
- By: Sherry Turkle
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renowned media scholar Sherry Turkle investigates how a flight from conversation undermines our relationships, creativity, and productivity - and why reclaiming face-to-face conversation can help us regain lost ground. We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection. Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has been studying digital culture for over 30 years. Long an enthusiast for its possibilities, here she investigates a troubling consequence.
-
-
So good, I had to stop listening.
- By Turtle 1 on 12-30-15
By: Sherry Turkle
-
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
- And Other Lessons from the Crematory
- By: Caitlin Doughty
- Narrated by: Caitlin Doughty
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty - a 20-something with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre - took a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life’s work. With an original voice that combines fearless curiosity and mordant wit, Caitlin tells an unusual coming-of-age story full of bizarre encounters, gallows humor, and vivid characters (both living and very dead).
-
-
Loved it So Much I Bought it After Reading it Free
- By J. Mattox on 05-17-17
By: Caitlin Doughty
-
Life Together
- The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community
- By: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 3 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.
-
-
Fantástico!!
- By Tamika May on 05-12-15
-
Everything Happens for a Reason
- And Other Lies I've Loved
- By: Kate Bowler
- Narrated by: Kate Bowler
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kate Bowler is a professor at Duke Divinity School with a modest Christian upbringing, but she specializes in the study of the prosperity gospel, a creed that sees fortune as a blessing from God and misfortune as a mark of God's disapproval. At 35, everything in her life seems to point toward "blessing". She is thriving in her job, married to her high school sweetheart, and loves life with her newborn son. Then she is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.
-
-
Please give me back the lost hours of my life!
- By Charles on 03-24-19
By: Kate Bowler
-
All That Remains
- A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes
- By: Sue Black
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dame Sue Black is an internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist. She has lived her life eye to eye with the Grim Reaper, and she writes vividly about it in this book, which is part primer on the basics of identifying human remains, part frank memoir of a woman whose first paying job as a schoolgirl was to apprentice in a butcher shop, and part no-nonsense but deeply humane introduction to the reality of death in our lives. It is a treat for CSI junkies, murder mystery and thriller fans, and anyone seeking a clear-eyed guide to a subject that touches us all.
-
-
I wanted a science book about forensics. I got a mostly-memoir instead.
- By A Customer on 11-29-19
By: Sue Black
-
The Whole Death Catalog
- A Lively Guide to the Bitter End
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of Mary Roach's best-selling Stiff and Jessica Mitford's classic expose The American Way of Death comes this meticulously researched and refreshingly irreverent look at death from acclaimed author Harold Schechter. With his trademark fearlessness and bracing sense of humor, Schechter digs deep into a wealth of sources to unearth a treasure trove of surprising facts, amusing anecdotes, practical information, and timeless wisdom about that undiscovered country to which we will all one day travel.
-
-
Bathroom literature, not audible book material.
- By Evie M on 09-25-19
By: Harold Schechter
-
Flourish
- A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being
- By: Martin Seligman
- Narrated by: Jesse Boggs
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book will help you flourish. With this unprecedented promise, internationally esteemed psychologist Martin Seligman begins Flourish, his first book in 10 years - and the first to present his dynamic new concept of what well-being really is. Traditionally, the goal of psychology has been to relieve human suffering, but the goal of the Positive Psychology movement, which Dr. Seligman has led for 15 years, is different - it’s about actually raising the bar for the human condition.
-
-
A rambling tease.
- By M. Shults on 04-26-11
By: Martin Seligman
-
Death Need Not Be Fatal
- By: Malachy McCourt, Brian McDonald
- Narrated by: Malachy McCourt
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the course of his life, Malachy McCourt practically invented the singles bar and was a pioneer in talk radio, a soap opera star, a best-selling author, a gold smuggler, a political activist, and a candidate for governor of the state of New York. It seems that the only two things he hasn't done are stick his head into a lion's mouth and die. Since he is allergic to cats, he decided to write about the great hereafter and answer the question on most minds: What's so great about it anyhow?
-
-
What a life lived and shared!
- By Lili on 06-19-17
By: Malachy McCourt, and others
-
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?
- Big Questions from Tiny Mortals
- By: Caitlin Doughty
- Narrated by: Caitlin Doughty
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to 35 distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. In her inimitable voice, Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death?
-
-
There is just something with Caitlin Doughty...
- By Elijah on 09-21-19
By: Caitlin Doughty
-
Gory Details
- By: Erika Engelhaupt
- Narrated by: Mari Weiss
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Filled to the brim with far-out facts, this wickedly informative narrative from the author of National Geographic's popular Gory Details blog takes us on a fascinating journey through an astonishing new reality. Blending humor and journalism in the tradition of Mary Roach, acclaimed science reporter Erika Engelhaupt investigates the gross, strange, and morbid absurdities of our bodies and our universe.
-
-
Feels like old school Discovery channel
- By Anonymous User on 02-15-23
By: Erika Engelhaupt
-
Forensics
- What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime
- By: Val McDermid
- Narrated by: Sarah Barron
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The dead talk - to the right listener. They can tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died, and, of course, who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help serve justice using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene, or the faintest of human traces.
-
-
Crime Seen
- By Mark on 09-02-16
By: Val McDermid
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
Native Country of the Heart
- A Memoir
- By: Cherríe Moraga
- Narrated by: Cherríe Moraga
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Native Country of the Heart is the writer and activist Cherrie Moraga's love letter to her "unlettered" mother. It begins with her mother, Elvira Isabel Moraga, who as a child, along with her siblings, was hired out by her own father to pick cotton in California's Imperial Valley. The lives of Cherrie and her mother, and of their people, are woven together in a story of critical reflection and deep personal revelation as Moraga charts her own coming to consciousness alongside the heartbreaking story of her mother's decline.
-
-
a must read for all chicanx
- By Rachel Barnett on 04-28-19
By: Cherríe Moraga
-
Modern Loss
- Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome.
- By: Rebecca Soffer, Gabrielle Birkner
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when we mourn public figures and national tragedies with hashtags, where intimate posts about loss go viral and we receive automated birthday reminders for dead friends, it's clear we are navigating new terrain without a road map. Let's face it: Most of us have always had a difficult time talking about death and sharing our grief. We're awkward and uncertain; we avoid, ignore, or even deny feelings of sadness; we offer platitudes; we send sympathy bouquets whittled out of fruit.
-
-
Not What I Was Expecting
- By Bessie Mae on 03-01-23
By: Rebecca Soffer, and others
-
Knocking on Heaven's Door
- The Path to a Better Way of Death
- By: Katy Butler
- Narrated by: Katy Butler
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like so many of us, award-winning writer Katy Butler always assumed her aging parents would experience healthy, active retirements before dying peacefully at home. Then her father suffered a stroke that left him incapable of easily finishing a sentence or showering without assistance. Her mother was thrust into full-time caregiving, and Katy became one of the 24 million Americans who help care for aging parents. In an effort to correct a minor and non - life threatening heart arrhythmia, doctors outfitted her father with a pacemaker.
-
-
A better way to narrate a book about death?
- By MAUREEN on 10-21-13
By: Katy Butler
-
Manhood for Amateurs
- The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Michael Chabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a devoted son, as a passionate husband, and above all as a father, Chabon's memories of childhood, of his parents' marriage and divorce, of moments of painful adolescent comedy and giddy encounters with the popular art and literature of his own youth, are like a theme played by the mad quartet of which he now finds himself co-conductor. At once dazzling, hilarious, and moving, Manhood for Amateurs is destined to become a classic.
-
-
Terrible
- By Ken on 10-14-09
By: Michael Chabon
-
Shanda
- A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy
- By: Letty Cottin Pogrebin
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The word "shanda" is defined as shame or disgrace in Yiddish. This book, Shanda, tells the story of three generations of complicated, intense twentieth-century Jews for whom the desire to fit in and the fear of public humiliation either drove their aspirations or crushed their spirit. In her deeply engaging, astonishingly candid memoir, author and activist Letty Cottin Pogrebin exposes the fiercely-guarded lies and intricate cover-ups woven by dozens of members of her extended family.
-
-
Beautifully Written!
- By Adele Aron Greenspun on 01-12-23
-
More Beautiful Than Before
- How Suffering Transforms Us
- By: Steve Leder
- Narrated by: Steve Leder
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every one of us sooner or later walks through hell. The hell of being hurt, the hell of hurting another. The hell of cancer, the hell of a reluctant, thunking shovel full of earth upon the casket of someone we deeply loved, the hell of betrayal, the hell of betraying, the hell of divorce, the hell of a kid in trouble...the hell of knowing that this year, like any year, may be our last. We all walk through hell. The point is not to come out empty-handed.... There is real and profound power in the suffering we endure if we transform that suffering into a more authentic, meaningful life.
-
-
Learning from Pain
- By Dave on 02-20-19
By: Steve Leder
-
Native Country of the Heart
- A Memoir
- By: Cherríe Moraga
- Narrated by: Cherríe Moraga
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Native Country of the Heart is the writer and activist Cherrie Moraga's love letter to her "unlettered" mother. It begins with her mother, Elvira Isabel Moraga, who as a child, along with her siblings, was hired out by her own father to pick cotton in California's Imperial Valley. The lives of Cherrie and her mother, and of their people, are woven together in a story of critical reflection and deep personal revelation as Moraga charts her own coming to consciousness alongside the heartbreaking story of her mother's decline.
-
-
a must read for all chicanx
- By Rachel Barnett on 04-28-19
By: Cherríe Moraga
-
Modern Loss
- Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome.
- By: Rebecca Soffer, Gabrielle Birkner
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when we mourn public figures and national tragedies with hashtags, where intimate posts about loss go viral and we receive automated birthday reminders for dead friends, it's clear we are navigating new terrain without a road map. Let's face it: Most of us have always had a difficult time talking about death and sharing our grief. We're awkward and uncertain; we avoid, ignore, or even deny feelings of sadness; we offer platitudes; we send sympathy bouquets whittled out of fruit.
-
-
Not What I Was Expecting
- By Bessie Mae on 03-01-23
By: Rebecca Soffer, and others
-
Knocking on Heaven's Door
- The Path to a Better Way of Death
- By: Katy Butler
- Narrated by: Katy Butler
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like so many of us, award-winning writer Katy Butler always assumed her aging parents would experience healthy, active retirements before dying peacefully at home. Then her father suffered a stroke that left him incapable of easily finishing a sentence or showering without assistance. Her mother was thrust into full-time caregiving, and Katy became one of the 24 million Americans who help care for aging parents. In an effort to correct a minor and non - life threatening heart arrhythmia, doctors outfitted her father with a pacemaker.
-
-
A better way to narrate a book about death?
- By MAUREEN on 10-21-13
By: Katy Butler
-
Manhood for Amateurs
- The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: Michael Chabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a devoted son, as a passionate husband, and above all as a father, Chabon's memories of childhood, of his parents' marriage and divorce, of moments of painful adolescent comedy and giddy encounters with the popular art and literature of his own youth, are like a theme played by the mad quartet of which he now finds himself co-conductor. At once dazzling, hilarious, and moving, Manhood for Amateurs is destined to become a classic.
-
-
Terrible
- By Ken on 10-14-09
By: Michael Chabon
-
Shanda
- A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy
- By: Letty Cottin Pogrebin
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The word "shanda" is defined as shame or disgrace in Yiddish. This book, Shanda, tells the story of three generations of complicated, intense twentieth-century Jews for whom the desire to fit in and the fear of public humiliation either drove their aspirations or crushed their spirit. In her deeply engaging, astonishingly candid memoir, author and activist Letty Cottin Pogrebin exposes the fiercely-guarded lies and intricate cover-ups woven by dozens of members of her extended family.
-
-
Beautifully Written!
- By Adele Aron Greenspun on 01-12-23
-
More Beautiful Than Before
- How Suffering Transforms Us
- By: Steve Leder
- Narrated by: Steve Leder
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every one of us sooner or later walks through hell. The hell of being hurt, the hell of hurting another. The hell of cancer, the hell of a reluctant, thunking shovel full of earth upon the casket of someone we deeply loved, the hell of betrayal, the hell of betraying, the hell of divorce, the hell of a kid in trouble...the hell of knowing that this year, like any year, may be our last. We all walk through hell. The point is not to come out empty-handed.... There is real and profound power in the suffering we endure if we transform that suffering into a more authentic, meaningful life.
-
-
Learning from Pain
- By Dave on 02-20-19
By: Steve Leder
-
The Unspeakable
- And Other Subjects of Discussion
- By: Meghan Daum
- Narrated by: Meghan Daum
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide", Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital.
-
-
Complaining about her dead mom.
- By Erik Hermansen on 11-23-14
By: Meghan Daum
-
Learning to Die in Miami
- Confessions of a Refugee Boy
- By: Carlos Eire
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carlos Eire's story of a boyhood uprooted by the Cuban Revolution quickly lures us in, as eleven-year-old Carlos and his older brother Tony touch down in the sun-dappled Miami of 1962 - a place of daunting abundance where his old Cuban self must die to make way for a new, American self waiting to be born. In this enchanting new work, narrated in Eire's inimitable and lyrical voice, young Carlos adjusts to life in his new country.
-
-
Excellent memoir of a forgotten time in history
- By BRB on 03-23-15
By: Carlos Eire
-
Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty
- An Intimate Portrait of My Grandmother
- By: Kate Hennessy
- Narrated by: Randye Kaye
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was a prominent Catholic, writer, social activist, and cofounder of a movement dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. Her life has been revealed through her own writings as well as the work of historians, theologians, and academics. What has been missing until now is a more personal account from the point of view of someone who knew her well.
-
-
Great content.HORRIBLE Narration. Cannot listen.
- By Christian on 04-21-17
By: Kate Hennessy
-
The Dark Flood Rises
- A Novel
- By: Dame Margaret Drabble
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Francesca Stubbs has a very full life. A highly regarded expert on housing for the elderly who is herself getting on in age, she drives restlessly round England. Amid the professional conferences she attends, she fits in visits to old friends, brings home-cooked dinners to her ex-husband, texts her son, who is grieving over the sudden death of his girlfriend, and drops in on her daughter, a quirky young woman who lives in a floodplain in the West Country.
-
-
Life Observed By An Exceptional Writer
- By Sara on 03-22-17
-
Driving on the Rim
- By: Thomas McGuane
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The unforgettable voyager of this dark picaresque is I. B. "Berl" Pickett, M.D., whose die was probably cast the moment his mother thought to name him after Irving Berlin. Other insults piled on apace thereafter: the spasms of Pentecostal Sunday worship; the social debilitation of following his parents' itinerant rug-shampooing business; the erotic initiation at the hands of his aunt. It's hard to imagine what would have become of him had he not gone to medical school.
-
-
Delightful
- By Roy on 01-05-11
By: Thomas McGuane
-
The Fire This Time
- A New Generation Speaks About Race
- By: Jesmyn Ward
- Narrated by: Cherise Boothe, Michael Early, Kevin R. Free, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin's 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping-off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time.
-
-
Delusion shattering
- By Matthew A. Burnett on 06-12-20
By: Jesmyn Ward
-
Mother Tongue
- By: Demetria Martinez
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A nameless El Salvadoran man, fleeing torture and imprisonment, arrives in the United States - his only hope for asylum. The American woman who has volunteered to help him is searching for something to add meaning to her life. When these two lonely people meet, their haunting relationship fulfills their hearts' desires, but it also gives life to their darkest dreams.
-
-
Amazing Story
- By Alexa :3 on 09-26-24
-
Where the Past Begins
- A Writer's Memoir
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Amy Tan
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moving from her childhood in Oakland and growing up with her Chinese parents through her success as a novelist, Amy Tan delves into her creative interests in music, the paralysis of beginning a new project, journal writing, and travelling. Where the Past Begins chronicles the making of a writer. With characteristic humor and poignant observation, Tan weaves a nontraditional introspective narrative that is as complex and vibrant as this beloved American novelist's fiction.
-
-
Narration Issues
- By Sara on 12-14-17
By: Amy Tan
-
Amazing Grace
- The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation
- By: Jonathan Kozol
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The children we meet through the deepening friendships that evolve between Janathan Kozol and their families defy the stereotypes of urban youth too frequently presented on TV and in newspapers. Tender, generous, and often religiously devout, they speak with painful clarity about the poverty and racial isolation that have wounded but not hardened them. "It's not like being in a jail," says 15-year-old Isabel. "It's more like being hidden."
-
-
The Roots of Change are in Education
- By T. C. Pile on 06-05-20
By: Jonathan Kozol
-
The Boys in the Bunkhouse
- Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland
- By: Dan Barry
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tiny Iowa farm town of Atalissa, dozens of men, all with intellectual disabilities and all from Texas, lived in an old schoolhouse. Before dawn each morning, they were bussed to a nearby processing plant, where they eviscerated turkeys in return for food, lodging, and $65 a month. They lived in near servitude for more than 30 years, enduring increasing neglect, exploitation, and physical and emotional abuse.
-
-
Our Brothers' Keepers?
- By Gillian on 12-01-16
By: Dan Barry
-
Wilde Lake
- A Novel
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney, Nicole Poole
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Luisa "Lu" Brant is the newly elected - and first female - state's attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her widower father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death in her home. It's not the kind of case that makes headlines, but peaceful Howard County doesn't see many homicides.
-
-
In a word saccharine and boring
- By Rena on 05-12-16
By: Laura Lippman
-
More Die of Heartbreak
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Ramiz Monsef
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kenneth Trachtenberg, an eccentric and witty native of Paris, travels to the Midwest to spend time with his famous American uncle, a world-renowned botanist and self-described "plant visionary". After numerous affairs and failed relationships, the restless Uncle Benn seeks a settled existence in the form of marriage - but tying the knot again opens the door to a host of new torments.
-
-
A great book
- By John A. on 03-16-22
By: Saul Bellow
What listeners say about The Undertaking
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Superminx
- 04-22-17
Unprepared
I was unprepared for the humor, joy, linguistic melody of this book, at my first reading of it. Now, I have read it in print, listened to it on Audible (3 times) with no diminishment of pleasure. Lynch offers us new opportunities for appreciation of Life despite our human foibles and grand distractions, he gives us something to be hopeful about.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- 'houla
- 04-29-24
A surprising case for tradition
Thomas Lynch is first a poet, no matter what else he does to supplement his income. His language is spare. Senses and emotions hold the words together.
For those looking for the “eww” factor of handling the dead, you’ll be satisfied. You’ll also discover the reasons for body preparation, the viewing, the service, and the burial.
I’m a Caitlin Doughty (proponent of transparency in the funeral industry) fan. I was ready to view Lynch’s discussion with a gimlet eye. Unexpectedly, Lynch speaks of his services with the need to help the grieving. No hard sell, just a deep well of experience to provide the family what they want. He would help me plan a no frills cremation, or bury me in my wedding dress after delivering me to the grave by horse drawn carriage.
The compassion he has for parents of dead children makes Lynch my hero. He is so gentle, and donates much of his work to minimize expenses.
Joe Hill, Stephen King’s son, says he learned to write from JK Rowling. I’d like to learn from Thomas Lynch.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ZacharyKindle Customer
- 09-17-17
THE UNDERTAKING!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, I like the way the author writes about the subject, (sort of (tongue in cheek ) for those who are uncomfortable with this subject!
Who was your favorite character and why?
THE AUTHOR, BECAUSE HE GETS THE INFORMATION ACROSS WITH HUMOR.
What about Kevin T. Collins’s performance did you like?
HIS HUMOR, I THINK HE PREFORMED EXACTLY THE WAY THE AUTHOR INTENDED FOR IT TO BE READ.
What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?
HIS IDEAS ABOUT WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE ASHES AFTERWARDS. GREAT IDEAS!!!
Any additional comments?
I LOVED THE BOOK!!! 😉
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Pamela Harvey
- 06-28-13
Thoroughly Original, Inspiring and Mesmerizing!
I wanted to read this as soon as the book appeared in the audible.com inventory. "The Undertaking" attracted my attention as the subject is neither common nor comfortable for many. So I couldn't wait to jump right in.
Thomas Lynch is both a published poet and the director of a funeral home; perhaps an odd pairing of professions, but each job informs the other and stories of the living (as he cares for and buries the dead) flow poetically through this novel as the Huron River flows through his home town in Michigan. As Lynch anecdotally brings life to those his clients have left behind, the poetry within the prose is musical, nuanced, and sustaining.
Kevin T. Collins' performance makes a substantial contribution and I am not certain this book will impact readers in quite the same way as hearing it read with such sensitivity, emotion, and grace, and at times I could not tell if I was reading prose or poetry.
,
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
22 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nicholas C. Yarish
- 11-11-18
ok
I loved the narrator, but the book went on and on about politics than undertaking.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- head-hen
- 04-06-23
Philosophy and mental rivers
This book is a worthy read for anyone interested in death's philosophy and the meandering of the mind. 10/10 recommended.
I really would rather not spoil it, but for all those thinking this book will be a job description, look elsewhere and listen to the sample. there is a poetic turn of thought in these pages with may commend itself to the thinker and philosopher.
The section on Stephanie was particularly affecting to me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Walter Sonny Sellers
- 12-23-19
Musings on morbidity become tangential
Although eloquent when discussing his profession, relationship, and outlook on death, often begins to branch off into unsolicited observations on society without presenting significant evidence to back them up.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Austin
- 05-10-18
Many words with little being said.
After listening to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" Audible recommended this book to me. Hoping "The Undertaking" would be equally as interesting and entertaining; I was disappointed. The story writing speaks nothing of what is behind the curtain of the crypt. "The Undertaking" is a dismal full worded re-accouting of the authors personal life. If one hopes to learn about funeral work, body disposal, and the undertaking of being an undertaker, look for titles such as "Stiff" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes".
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ZHop59
- 10-27-22
Not as Expected
The total material of this work has barely half of the content that drew me to this title: direct reflections in the realities of this industry. The rest are awkwardly poetic ramblings that are sporadic, random, and sometimes irreverent. I completed the work but was generally disappointed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AThankU
- 01-27-22
Boring and misleading
It was hardly about undertaking at all. Very wordy and uninteresting stories about his personal life, religion, and politics.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!