I have to say this book almost dropped to 2 stars for me. There are some heartfelt and interesting stories in here. They are all very short - 2 or 3 pages generally and easy to read.Here's the big issue: they're not as funny as advertised.I was lead to believe this would be lots of "you won't believe this" kind of comedy of errors and amusing things going on. Hell, the picture on the cover even lends itself to that. What's inside is very different. Many of these stories belonged in some kind of "soup" book to be uplifting or thought provoking. They weren't funny at all. I suppose if I had a recent death in the family, some of them might have made me cry.See where the issue is here? Funny is not showing me a funeral director that lives at the funeral home and can't have relations with a drunk girl once she figures out where he lives. There are a lot of things that story might be - funny isn't one of them.I won't say this is a horrible book. If you'd like a wide ranging look behind the scenes of a funeral directors life, this could be a very good choice. They're right - it's often easy to forget they're people too.If you're interested in behind the scenes anecdotes, give it a shot. If you're looking strictly for comedy - try something else. While I really enjoyed reading about some of the crazier things that morticians around the country have dealt with, I had a hard time ignoring the poor writing. It was appalling in a lot of areas. An example:"Many a person has told me of the discrete removal of certain objects from their friend's or sibling's house before the parents or children go in to clean it out. But aside from the objects, stuff that maybe we shouldn't have or would be embarrassed to admit owning are the people."Yes, I'd be embarrassed to admit I own people, too. As the story progresses, I realized the writer was trying to convey that many of the deceased have had illicit affairs they have been able to keep secret until their deaths. That kind of sentence happens again and again, and it is distracting, even though the material is really interesting. If you can get past that, it's a pretty good book. If the subject matter weren't so compelling, I'd give it one star for the writing.
What do You think about Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill The Dirt (2010)?
Absolutely hated this book. Writing wasn't very good, stories were boring.
—jensenalex
