In the end, we all die, no one is exempt from death.
This fleeting narrative is a collection of vignettes about the dead. A father—the embalmer—relays the cases to his daughter. These are the notes of a life spent dealing with death and the aftermath, and a daughter trying to make sense of it all, including trying to make sense of her father. He speaks of children, of the elderly, of young women, of those marred in death, and of the secrets of his profession, like the powder that is injected into the cheeks for blush, how candle wax is used to reconstruct a skull, and weighing down an empty casket with the right amount of stones.
The retelling of these cases in note format works perfectly—it is as if the reader is the notetaker. His daughter is trying just as hard as the reader to make sense of her father's life which was spent staring at death. In a cruel irony, we learn that cases of brain tumours are more common among anatomists, pathologists and embalmers (they think it's the formaldehyde).
Fascinating, sad, gruesome, and isolating. This haunting book will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.
ANNE-RENEÉ CAILLÉ lives in Montreal. This is her first novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment