After Kate Mayfield was born, she was taken directly to a funeral home. Her father was an undertaker, and for thirteen years the family resided in a place nearly synonymous with death. A place where the living and the dead entered their house like a vapor. The place where Kate would spend the entirety of her childhood.
Kate's father set up shop in a small town where he was one of two white morticians during the turbulent 1960s. Jubilee, Kentucky, was a segregated, god-fearing community where no one kept secrets, except the ones they were buried with. By opening a funeral home, Kate's father also opened the door to family feuds, fetishes, and victims of accidents, murder, and suicide. The family saw it all. They also saw the quiet ruin of Kate's father, who hid alcoholism and infidelity behind a cool, charismatic exterior. As Mayfield grows from trusting child to rebellious teen, she begins to find the enforced hush of the funeral home oppressive, and longs for the day she can escape the confines of her small town.
The cover is lovely. The story sounds interesting. It is not really a common life I guess and I am curious about the influence of being an undertaker on someones life.
2 reacties
Write reactiesIt sounds like a coming of age family drama? The cover is fantastic!
ReplyI'm betting this will be really good. I read a similar memoir, also dealing with a funeral home, last year called "Driving With Dead People," by Monica Holloway. I read it in one straight sitting, going to bed at 5am.
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