The Funeral Makers

In reading "The Funeral Makers", the authoress drew out a wide set of emotions from one end of the spectrum to the other with melancholy leading to laughter and curiousity leading to self-made conclusions unraveling as the plot carried me through a winding road of unexpected twists and turns. This book was a page turner if ever there was one. I could scarcely put it down. The characters seemed to call out to me to "unearth" the secrets contained in this treasure of a book! You will enjoy each character's depth and will discover what makes them tick. Ms. Pelletier delves into the psyches of the characaters to provide each with a multidimensional image. Once you have finished reading "The Funeral Makers", you will be moved to pick up another of Cathie Pelletier's writing masterpieces. Enjoy!!

The family gathers for the pending death of Marge. Sisters Pearl and Sicily get along well with each other, but the positive feelings end there. Sicily's daughter is 13 and has a crush on a 32-year-old low life thief. Her husband is an alcoholic. Pearl's husband and son are undertakers-whoops, I mean funeral directors--, and her wimpy daughter has a son who might be a good candidate for an exorcism. This family has a series of misadventures throughout the book: their car ends up in a river with them in it; a rape takes place; a car is stolen; little son of satan demolishes a hotel room. And it's all quite hilarious. This is Sinclair Lewis's Main Street gone seriously bad. CP's characters are well developed, despite the dark humor. The author has much affection for them despite her tendency to stick pins in their suffering bodies. The humor finally subsides later in the book, as Ms Pelletier shows us people who do and some who do not struggle on after seeing the failure of their lives' ambitions. These are imperfect people living in a far from perfect world. Ultimately this is a very serious book, and unless you share my love of black humor, you might be a bit perplexed by the whole thing. Cathie Pelletier is a very talented writer.

This a great read - with a mix of humor and pathos that flow smoothly between one another. Memorable characters and an eye for the land and the seasons, put Pelletier in league with some of the great American writers.

Let's make no bones about it. Maine native Cathie Pelletier is easily the most talented writer out there on the Maine fiction landscape, bar none. With "The Funeral Makers", Pelletier introduces us to the isolated and tiny Mattagash, Maine, nestled beside the St. John River at the Canadian border. Though loosely inspired by the politics in her hometown (Allagash, Maine), this wonderful hoot of a novel created a bit of a stir back home nonetheless. "The Funeral Makers" follows the ongoing feud between the two most visible families in Mattagash: the self-designated monarchic clan of the community, the MacKinnons; and the Giffords, the rowdy, irreverant and always-procreating scapegoats. Not since Carolyn Chute's "The Beans of Egypt, Maine" have we met so troubled, or so human a brood. As you loathe the behavior, you can't help but admire the spirit which keeps them going. The story of the quintessential dysfunctional family gathered for the impending death of one of their own, this novel seamlessly weaves plot after complex subplot in a disturbing and often hilarious crazy quilt of small-town angst. The character of Amy Joy Lawler, who returns in "The Funeral Maker"'s two sequels ("Once Upon a Time On the Banks", "The Weight of Winter"), emerges as the bubblegum-snapping, too-wise-for-her-years heroine who challenges the world order in Mattagash and becomes the launchpad for her older lover's bedhopping through the generations of her family. Reading Cathie Pelletier is a pleasure so rich, so fulfilling, that you hate to leave Mattagash behind, though at the same time it's a place most of us would never wish to visit.