The Sin-Eater: A Breviary

by Thomas Lynch, Michael Lynch (Photographer)

Argyle eased the warm loaf right and left

and downed swift gulps of beer and venial sin

then lit into the bread now leavened with

the corpse’s cardinal mischiefs, then he said

“Six pence, I’m sorry.” And the widow paid him.

 

So opens the unsanctioned priesthood of The Sin-eater: A Breviary —Thomas Lynch’s collection of two dozen, twenty-four line poems—a book of hours in the odd life and times of Argyle, the sin-eater. Celtic and druidic, scapegoat and outlier, a fixture in the funerary landscape of former centuries, Argyle’s doubt-ridden witness seems entirely relevant to our difficult times. His “loaf and bowl,” consumed over corpses, become the elements of sacrament and sacrilege. By turns worshipful and irreverent, good-humored and grim, these poems examine the deeper meanings of Eucharist and grace, forgiveness and faith, atonement and reconciliation. With photographs by Michael Lynch and cover art by Sean Lynch, the author’s sons.

Genres: Poetry, Ireland, Religion

80 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Thomas Lynch has authored five collections of poetry, one of stories, and four books of essays, including National Book Award Finalist The Undertaking. He works as a funeral director in Milford, Michigan, and teaches at the Bear River Writer’s Conference.

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems are relevant to our difficult times. They examine the deeper meanings of our important questions. The author is an undertaker so he has seen it all as they say. I found the sin-eater to be full of grace, redemption, atonement and reconciliation.

[Pat Padden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cycle of poems about a man with a singular occupation: in rural (read superstition-riddled) Irish communities, when a person - particularly an unrepentant sinner or one overtaken by sudden deadly calamity and therefore unshriven - dies, a sin-eater is called upon to attend the wake. He is given a bowl of ale, a loaf of bread, and a small payment, in return for which he consumes the ale and the loaf, thereby taking the unconfessed sins of the deceased upon himself and allowing the departed soul a safe passage home. Thomas Lynch has written a verse biography of one such man and of his littoral place in society - both shunned and needed by the community, and reviled by the clergy yet offering redemption where they withhold it. In, "He Posits Certain Mysteries", for example, Argyle, the sin-eater comforts the family of a suicide;

The body of the boy who took his flight
off the cliff at Kilcloher into the sea
was hauled up by the curragh-men, out at first light
fishing mackerel in the estuary.
"No requiem or rosary," said the priest.

...

But Argyle refused their shilling coin
and helped them build a box and dig a grave.
"Your boy's no profligate or prodigal,"
he said, "only a wounded pilgrim like us all.
What say his leaping was a leap of faith,
into his father's beckoning embrace?"

Perhaps I should mention here that, in addition to being a poet and a dextrous and lovely wordsmith in prose, as well, Mr. Lynch is a follower of the dismal trade - a mortician - and is thus conversant with the many attitudes that people adopt when confronted by the dead. This is a touching little book, beautifully illustrated by the author's son Michael Lynch's black and white photographs, taken round about their ancestral Irish home in Moveen.

[M.W. Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sin-Eater: A Breviary by Thomas Lynch receives four stars from me which might be changed in the future as I read more poetry. However, on this reading, I thought the works were interesting and create a character that will stick with readers.

This is a collection of 24 poems and 26 photos. I liked the juxtaposition of the pictures with the poems. But sometimes they don't seem to fit at all while other times they match well.

It has been a long time since I studied poetry so I'm not as fluent in my poetry understanding as in the past. I felt that the poems were interesting, but I'd like to see different forms. Having said that, I believe all the poems are 24 lines long, for a day. I think Lynch has created a form and stuck with it. But I didn't recognize it and learned it from reading about the book.

Recommended: are you catholic? sure, but it isn't always or isn't mostly positive about religion. Are you an avid reader of poetry? sure, you may get more out of it than I did. New to poetry? sure, the poems are easy to read, but still having some depth to them.

[Tyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of Thomas Lynch this book is not my favorite, but it does not disappoint. It's political, religious, and questions morality through the eyes of one who works with death.

Argyle is a sin-eater, someone who through the offering of bread and beer can absorb the sins of the dead. Lynch writes that "The sin-eater is both appalled by his culture's religiosity and beholden to it. The accountancy of sin and punishment at once offends him and feeds him."
Through just 24 poems and the accompaniment of black and white photos from around Ireland (the interior of a church, a Bronze Girl sculpture, donkeys and more) he creates an intimacy for the task at hand and a sympathy for both Argyle and those he attends.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as an ebook through Hoopla (a service my library offers). I really enjoyed these poems about Argyle, a sin-eater in Ireland who wanders from place to place giving expiation to the dead. I also enjoyed the intro by the author who tells something of his own background and interest in the figure of the sin-eater. I highly recommend this book of poems.

[Melinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poems are okay, but the story behind the poems is the best thing about this collection. Put it on the shelf to pick up and read again at a later date to see if I missed anything. Ever hopeful. That's me.

[Chy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminded me of Ardyn from Final Fantasy, because he ate people's darkness/sins too.

[Luke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.
I didn't get much out of this lol

[Dedria A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book a few days ago. It intrigued me at first because I had never heard of a sin-eater. It’s a man who eats a loaf of bread and drinks a bowl of beer over a corpse. The eating represents the sins of the dead person. This is something to think about.

Argyle is the name of this particular sin eater. Like the socks. The format is poetry story poetry. And there are photographs of scenes from Ireland.

I don’t want to give away the situations. Though being in close company with a corpse might be enough of a situation there are different ones here. Just as their are different deaths there are different situations. Like what is a sin eater to do when the sin is astronomical? Like this was a really bad person? Well, read this slim volume to find out.

Thomas Lynch has the corner on death. He’s an undertaker and a poet and an essayist and a fiction writer. Death is what he lives with so he finds it in all permutations. Different aspects of the same thing. The sin-eater is just one.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Lynch's The Sin-Eater will make you read poetry. Lynch is a fourth-generation Irish American who has followed the family business; he is a funeral director in a small Michigan town. I read several poems from The Sin-Eater in an issue of Poetry magazine and immediately ordered the book.

There are 24 poems of 24 lines each which follow the life, ruminations, and peregrinations of Argyle, an Irish sin-eater. A sin-eater was an itinerant "funeral worker"; for a fee of six-pence he would eat a ceremonial meal over the body of the deceased, consuming the dead's sins and easing her into the afterlife. In Catholic Ireland, this puts the sin-eater in an uneasy triangle with the Church and the grieving family.

[Sally Ito · Rating 3 out of 5]

I reviewed this book for Geez magazine recently. It's an interesting insightful book about a folkloric figure known as the sin-eater -- a man who would show up at funerals and/or wakes to eat bread and drink beer over the corpse before disappearing into the night. He essentially would 'eat' the dead person's sin, thus freeing him/her into the afterlife. Lynch has created a fictional sin-eater named Argyle and has written from Argyle's point of view. Poems are solid -- so, too, is the language -- but my one quibble with this book was the mismatch of the poetry to the photographs.

[David Anthony Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting concept collection

Not Lynch's best poetry, but this collection is interesting as a concept and in execution. The Sin-eater as a character allows Lynch to explore the paradoxes of his faith in dramatic lyrics.

[Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved every line.

[Camellia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done, as always.

[Josh Guilar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now having reread this book, I can say I still like it and am still unsure about the poetry of it. An interesting and short read.

[Dorothy Mahoney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunting poems and photographs that deal with Argyle, a sin-eater, and conflict with clergy and client, who revile, yet need him. Most evocative photo taken by the poet's son of the other son
with bread on his chest and a bowl at his side.