In the Land of Long Fingernails: A Gravedigger in the Age of Aquarius

This book combines very interesting material (working in a graveyard), David-Sedaris-level humor, and some very skilled writing. It tells the story of the author's very interesting summer job while a university student back in the 60s. The details of the cemetery business are particularly interesting. Take "sinkers," for example. That's what it's called when a casket collapses and then forms a depression above. What the workers on "sinker patrol" do is make cuts in the sod, peel it back, fill in some dirt, then zip it back up. The day-to-day chores are particularly interesting, but there are also some major events that happen during the summer - an exhumation, a strike (including putting the bodies "on ice" in the chapel until it's over), the introduction of a female worker, and more. What really makes the book though are the characters. And characters they are. The two main ones are the boss, an alcoholic Scotsman who's been there forever, and an over-educated Italian with anarchist leanings. Wilkins really has a touch for this odd bunch and their fascinating interactions. The book also combines a feel for the summer of 1969 (the smell of marijuana pervades everything) and a bit of a coming-of-age story. Interestingly, I debated giving this book a 4. Why? In general, the irreverence the book shows is what makes this book so funny. The humor is really quite biting. Unfortunately, it's also unrelenting. When the author needs to soften up (e.g., when the boss's wife dies and he subsequently falls apart) he simply can't do it. Nonetheless, this is a great book and a super writer. Why haven't I heard of this guy before? He really deserves to be much better known.

IN THE LAND OF LONG FINGERNAILS; A GRAVEDIGGER IN THE AGE OF AQUARIUS tells of a college student who takes a job as a gravedigger - and discovers his job involves more than just digging graves. His witnessing of a midsummer gravedigger's strike, the unearthing of a victim of unsolved murder, and more makes for an involving guide packed with surprises, twists and turns of plot. An intriguing, different kind of memoir.

Charles Wilkins's "In The Land of Long Fingernails" is a rollicking good summer read. Great fun! After you've read this book, you'll never see any cemetery the same way. The insights gained from reading this hilarious and macabre tale will have you looking at stones and graves with a much sharper eye, privy to insider knowledge about what is down there and what it took to get them there. There is technical terminology to be mastered: cracker boxes, sinkers, stinkers, brown patrol and more. Although Wilkins's tale tells a lot about the dead, it tells us even more about the living. The odd cast of characters from "Scotty," the long-suffering and insufferable manager of the cemetery and finally, "Alcoholic Emeritus," to the grave-digger work crew are Wilkins's companions in this summer of 1969, the year of Woodstock. Of special note is his confidant and mentor, Luccio, more than a decade older than the then 19-year Wilkins. Luccio is a most unique role-model. Fellow grave-digger Norman, whose raison-d'etre is rock musician, plays showy riffs on air guitar is quietly unmasked as a mere equipment guy. Peter the Dutchman, "senior gravedigger" and heir-apparent to Scotty; Fred, a one-armed former juggler and WWII prison-camp survivor; the oafish Hogjaw; and finally, "non-man" Denise hired as the first female gravedigger round out the other living who made this summer job so memorable for Wilkins. Five stars! "In the Land of Long Fingernails" is more a coming-of-age tale and a tale about the living than it is a tale about cemetery work, dying and decomposition.

Once I started In the Land of Long Fingernails, I couldn't put it down. This memoir of a 19-year old working in a cemetery in the summer of 1969 was so captivating: the characters are hilarious, whether you love them or hate them, and the day-to-day activities are written so that you feel like you're right there in the graves with them - through the fun times and the chaos! Wilkins is a great story teller, and knows how to keep the reader enthralled with each page. I'm looking forward to his next work!