Thomas Lynch serves his readership as a poet and memoirist, and his townspeople as a funeral director. In this wholly unique collection of essays, the two vocations meet as Lynch shows himself to be a competent functionary of mourning--dispensing comfort and homespun wisdom to the grief-stricken--as well as a poet poignantly tuning language to the right tones of private release. He is also a man of sardonic wit, uncovering humor where we least thought to find it--in our fear of and fascination with death. In its homages to parents who have died and to children who shouldn't have, its tales of golfers tripping over grave markers, portraits of gourmands and hypochondriacs, lovers and suicides, The Undertaking displays an impressively wide vocal range--from solemn, nostalgic, and lyrical to acerbic, sprightly, and unflinchingly professional.

托馬斯.林奇（Thomas Lynch）著有《動與靜的身體》（Bodies in Motion and at Rest）、《和希瑟.格蕾絲一起滑冰》（Skating with Heather Grace）、《老雌貓及其他》（Grimalkin & Other Poems）和《仍然生活在米爾福德》（Still Life in Milford）。他的詩和散文發錶於《哈潑斯》、《倫敦書評》、《紐約客》和《巴黎評論》等著名期刊。林奇住在密歇根州的小鎮米爾福德，是小鎮上殯儀館的老闆。本書為作者贏得瞭1998年的美國圖書奬和1997的美國的國傢圖書奬提名。