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In The Land Of Long Fingernails (2008)

by Charles Wilkins(Favorite Author)

3.56 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0670065552 (ISBN13: 9780670065554)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Viking Canada

review 1: This book ended up on my “to read” list for two reasons- first it was one of the Globe and Mail’s top 100 books for 2008, and second it was a nominee for the 2009 Stephen Leacock Award. Despite the kudos, I found it a disappointment. It is the summer of 1969 and 19 year old Charles takes a summer job at a large cemetery in Toronto. Here he digs graves, helps maintain the grounds and prepares the burial sites for funerals. There are some funny and not so funny moments described here, including stories and profiles of the others working with him, the chore of minding a number of coffins in a refrigerated chapel during a gravediggers strike and the eerie disinterment of a murder victim. There are some macabre moments and some hilarious ones. Hardly a day goes by when th... moreere is not some grim new violation of civility or law. I just did not feel this memoir was an “award winner”.
review 2: I am drawn to quirky memoirs of folks in unusual places during unusual times, doing unusual things. This one hits the mark in those catagories. I read an advance of Her Fearful Symmetries recently, and was drawn to a real experience of working in a graveyard. Wilkins' graveyard isn't full of spooks and haunts, unless you're describing the maudlin group who tend it. Some of his characterizations are very powerful and a bit sad, and his writing is energetic and fresh. I don't think this book changed me, but it's plain that Wilkins' experience did change him. less

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