This is Jennifer Havlik with the Sioux City Public Library, and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today I’m recommending I See You’ve Called in Dead, the most recent book from author John Kenney. In this story, we meet Bud Stanley, an obituary writer who is having a bit of a tough time in life. Recently divorced and after a first date that went so poorly even the experienced bartender was left in disbelief, Bud returns home, gets rather drunk, and decides to write his own rather outlandish obituary. Just for fun, of course. He needs a laugh. He would never actually publish that.
Except he does. Oops!
After he’s placed on leave by the newspaper because it turns out you can’t fire someone who is marked as dead under human resources, Bud and his best friend Tim attend the funeral of Bud’s former mother-in-law and meet Clara. Clara is unfamiliar to everyone at the funeral. After leaving her corporate career in the dust, Clara spends her time attending the funerals of complete strangers. Unconventional? Most definitely. All for naught? Not in the slightest.
Bud has nothing but time now that he’s not working, so he agrees to meet Clara at a funeral soon. Over several weeks, he attends funerals for people from every walk of life: the old and the young, in languages he can’t understand and from religions he’s never practiced. Along the way, Bud sees that while maybe life does sometimes suck, there are a lot of great experiences to be had while living. Maybe learning those lessons through the lives of total strangers a second (or third or fourth) time isn’t the worst way to spend your days.
Described by Goodreads as, “The Office meets Six Feet Under meets About a Boy,” I See You’ve Called in Dead is a coming of middle-age tale that is both darkly funny and emotionally moving. You can check out I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney at the Sioux City Public Library.
Support for Check It Out on Siouxland Public Media comes from Avery Brothers.