Furnishing Eternity: A Father, a Son, a Coffin, and a Measure of Life

by David Giffels

“A lifetime’s worth of workbench philosophy in a heartfelt memoir about the connection between a father and son” (Kirkus Reviews)—the acclaimed author of The Hard Way on Purpose confronts mortality, survives loss, and finds resilience through an unusual woodworking project—constructing, with his father, his own coffin.David Giffels grew up fascinated by his father’s dusty, tool-strewn workshop and the countless creations it inspired. So when he enlisted his eighty-one-year-old dad to help him build his own casket, he thought of it mostly as an opportunity to sharpen his woodworking skills and to spend time together. But the unexpected deaths of his mother and, a year later, his best friend, coupled with the dawning realization that his father wouldn’t be around forever for such offbeat adventures—and neither would he—led to a harsh confrontation with mortality and loss. Over the course of several seasons, Giffels returned to his father’s barn in rural Ohio, a place cluttered with heirloom tools, exotic wood scraps, and long memory, to continue a pursuit that grew into a meditation on grief and optimism, a quest for enlightenment, and a way to cherish time with an aging parent. With wisdom and humor, Giffels grapples with some of the hardest questions we all face as he and his father saw, hammer, and sand their way through a year bowed by loss. Furnishing Eternity is “an entertaining memoir that moves through gentle absurdism to a poignant meditation on death and what comes before it” (Publishers Weekly). “Tender, witty and, like the woodworking it describes, painstakingly and subtly wrought. Furnishing Eternity continues Giffels’s unlikely literary career as the bard of Akron, Ohio…Only a very skilled engineer of a writer can transform the fits and starts, the fitted corners and sudden gouges of the assembly process into a kind of page-turning drama” (The New York Times Book Review).

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography, Grief, Death, Biography Memoir, Audiobook

257 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 2, 2018

About the author

"Barnstorming Ohio" author David Giffels has written six books of nonfiction, including the critically acclaimed memoir, "Furnishing Eternity: A Father, a Son, a Coffin, and a Measure of Life," published by Scribner in 2018. The book has been hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “tender, witty and ... painstakingly and subtly wrought,” and by Kirkus Reviews as “a heartfelt memoir about the connection between a father and son.” It was a Book of the Month pick by Amazon and Powell’s and a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice.”

His previous books include "The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches From the Rust Belt" (Scribner 2014), a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice” and nominee for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and the national-bestselling memoir "All the Way Home" (William Morrow/HarperCollins 2008), winner of the Ohioana Book Award.

​Giffels is the coauthor, with Jade Dellinger, of the rock biography "Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!" and, with Steve Love, "Wheels of Fortune: The Story of Rubber in Akron."

A former Akron Beacon Journal columnist, his writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic.com, Parade, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire.com, Grantland.com, The Iowa Review, and many other publications. He also wrote for the MTV series "Beavis and Butt-Head."

His awards include the Cleveland Arts Prize for literature, the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and a General Excellence award from National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He was selected as the Cuyahoga County Public Library Writer in Residence for 2018-2019.

Giffels is a professor of English at the University of Akron, where he teaches creative nonfiction in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program.

Reviews

[Ebirdy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely little memoir. it's rare enough that anyone talks about death and mortality and loss, let alone writes about it with beautiful language and feeling. This is not in the least bit maudlin - instead it's a thoughtful examination of love, friendship, life and, sometimes, death. And the dynamic between father and son reads true and respectful.

[Margie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review can’t heap enough praise on this book. It is so beautifully written and honest— about life and death and family. I don’t know that you have to have lost someone close to appreciate what he says, but it hit very close to home for me. The humor that he manages to keep throughout the book is a nice reminder to not take things, even building your own coffin, too seriously.

[Anneke · Rating 5 out of 5]

was debating between 4 and 5 stars but I’m going to give it 5 because the last page made me cry lol and books don’t often make me cry so it must be effective in some way.

I’ve been getting much more into woodworking recently and perhaps also thinking about mortality less but objects and their humanity more ??? either way I think that this was a good time for me to read “Furnishing Eternity.” I was able to understand a lot more of the more technical aspects of the book since I took a 3D foundations class finally 😻 when I saw them talking about mitred edges I was like HELL YEAH!!! I can’t wait to keep on building things and developing relationships with wood.

Giffels reminds me a bit of John Greene in his midwestern charm and existentialism etc. I think I’m fond of that kind of writing even if it can feel a bit contrived or overdone. sometimes this book felt too spot on or like how I would write in my journal on a good day when I’m waxing poetic, but maybe I should just let myself enjoy it. these critiques make me wonder if “good” literature is “supposed” to give you a peek into something you otherwise couldn’t conceive of, or if it’s worthy enough in making you identify resonance with the text, and that this recognition of the self in spite of difference is the mark of a good author/good writing. I feel like I could totally see myself growing up to be like Giffels in all his preoccupation with death and historicizing his family. he’s a cool guy and also incredibly obsessive #real. and I think wood is a very human material that really carries the narrative of the story when we think of it in the context of death and the preservation/burden/embalming ??? of life

this quotes from Ecclesiastes will stay with me: “‘and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.’” Giffels goes on to describe death as maybe being the “end of wanting.” Mmmmmm……..maybe

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Giffels has written one of the best midlife crisis books I have yet to read. It's not depressing, despite the title, rather it's hopeful, thoughtful, powerful and at times funny! The book is written as a series of short pieces the weave together several years of loss and pain that the author experiences with friends and family. His love of those closest to him is evidenced by the small moments he captures - his mom's wedding ring in a small dish that his dad keeps close at hand, his friend's monthly breakfast reminder that beeps on his phone, his wife's consternation about the coffin project. Each of these is a small gift to the life worth living. It's not the big moments, but the small, shared experiences that rise to his attention, that he gives notice to, that he makes us notice, that make this book sing. Given Giffels' life experiences and band references, I think we're about the same age and share similar taste in music, a bonus that made the book even more personally relevant.

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author really didn't have enough story for a full book so he filled it with some related tangents, but still tangents. I had hoped for more given the glowing NYT review.

[Kristina Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and intimate story of love and the people in our lives who make it worth living.

[Vera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What a premise for a book. Beautifully executed memoir and tribute to the author’s dad, mom and best friend. Quite a capstone to this second pandemic year. Local author hit it out of the park again!

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will write review after i have mulled it over. But this was incredible. Simply incredible.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty enjoyable reflection on mortality, and the author had a good mix of humor and of reflection on mortality. The description of the book pretty much covers it.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. David Giffels is an excellent writer who allows the reader into his everyday life, the funny and the sad, as in this book. While he was writing this book is Mother and best friend died. The day his book was released his Father passed away, David has decided to celebrate the life his Father lead.

[Kathi Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Giffels can write. Furnishing Eternity is a memoir and though some reviewers have noted that it is about death I completely disagree. This is about life and savoring every moment with those we love even after they are gone. Giffels writes with humor and affection about his friend John, his father and his own transition into middle age and what life is about.

"I really wanted was a connection back to that old workshop in the basement, the sweet vinegary smell of sawdust and machine oil."
"I wanted to support the tail of a long plank as he eyeballed it through the table saw. I wanted a reason to be in his dust, brushing it from my jeans and kicking it from my boots and making more."

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of those books that was donated to the library and when I read the jacket copy I was intrigued. I read it over about three lunch hours and so enjoyed it. It's just a well-written, concise book about mortality and a man's relationship with his father and with his friends told within the context of his plans to build his own coffin with his father's help. It was a quick read and I was glad to have read it.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Furnishing Eternity: A Father, a Son, a Coffin, and a Measure of Life by David Giffels has a bit of a depressing-sounding premise. On the surface, it’s about Giffels’s decision to build his own coffin with his father. The younger Giffels didn’t have an immediate need for a coffin — neither did his 81-year-old dad — but the author viewed the project “as a way to learn and spend time together,” a bonding opportunity whereas he could learn lessons about life and woodworking in his father’s workshop.

That happened, but not the way Giffels planned — which is the lesson, really, of his memoir. In his acknowledgements, Giffels thanks his editor John Glynn who commented that “this isn’t really a book about a coffin.” It’s not. It’s about so much more than the actual project, which took four years to complete. It’s a tribute to childhood friendships that stretch into adulthood, particularly the bond of male friendships that endure for decades and the profound grief felt when that person is gone.

It’s not often that a book makes me cry. This one did. It brought up … well, a lot. Memories of my own father’s workshop. Recollections of crazy times with friends. Giffels, an assistant professor of English at the University of Akron who teaches creative nonfiction in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program, has a talent for bringing the reader into the lives of each person he writes about. I felt as if I, too, had known his best friend John. Perhaps that’s why this one moved me so much — because, if we’re lucky, we’ve all had a friend like John and know the profound grief of missing them when they’re gone.

Furnishing Eternity is an poignant reminder of our own childhood, the passing of time, and the mortality of ourselves and those we love.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Furnishing Eternity works almost as a sequel to Giffels's excellent 2008 book All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House, a sort of hybrid home improvement book/memoir about restoring a decrepit mansion in Akron, Ohio. Here, Giffels works not on getting fixing up a home but on building his own coffin, a passion project he undertakes with his 80-something father. The coffin is important here as a symbol of mortality and mourning, both of which Giffels wrestles with throughout the book. He begins the project not long after losing both his mother and his best friend, making the project both a distraction from and an extended meditation on grief. It's also impossible not to notice the significance of Giffels's father's own impending death, adding a pallor to the proceedings that Giffels's nicely balances with the light humor and pop culture allusions that made his earlier memoir so enjoyable. In the end, it's all relatable--painfully so, at times--to anyone of a certain age trying not to think about how much time they have left with their aging loved ones.

[Elaine Cline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Furnishing Eternity: A Father, A Son, a Coffin, and a Measure of Life by David Giffels : I very much enjoyed reading this book! And this was just the book i needed to read at this time. The relationships between the author and his family members and his friends are warm , mindful, and loving. The story centers around the author wanting to spend more time - quality time- with his eighty-one year old Dad, and he comes up with the project idea of a home made coffin. As the spouse of an avid do-it-yourselfer, I read with interest and familiarity all the steps detailed throughout this project. From the initial sketching and rough ideas to the fact finding and informational field trips to the making a list of necessary materials to the trips to Home Depot to the day long chore of cleaning up the workshop to make space to start the new project and so forth. The projects may vary but the steps are similar.
As with many projects, the coffin build ran long- years long - due to life happening outside the workshop. Due to family, and work, and illness, and death. The end of the book is poignant, affirming and heart warming. This is a beautiful story.

[Jak Krumholtz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great reflection on life from an Akron author. Another of his books that was rescued from a library free pile piqued my interest enough to try this one. And now I'm set to check out everything he's done. I loved learning that he wrote for Beavis and Butthead some and seeing a mention to Guided By Voices here. But what really comes through is the heart of appreciating life by acknowledging death. The frame of the book is building his own casket with an elderly father while a best friend and mother pass away. Magically it does this without ever being a bummer or dark.

"The thing (Mike) Judge always understood best about his characters, and maintained so deftly, was that he wasn't writing for teenage boys. He was writing for the men those teenage boys had become and always were: us."

"At eighty-four, he repays the blessing of his good health by not wasting any of his days. His life is both small and large, and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference."

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is about death, and the author's musings on growing old and the deaths of those near to him, particularly his mother and best friend, it is not so much to do with building his coffin, a project he and his eighty year old father embarked on in order to spend more time together. It is about the satisfaction of a life that feels well lived to those who live it, and especially about family relationships. It was a fascinating read, both learning how to build a coffin, should you ever want to do so, and being allowed to enter into this close family, and Giffels' close friendship with his best friend, John. While it wasn't a particularly long book, it did seem a bit longer than it needed to be to get the job done.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My third David Giffels book, and of course I loved it. I was bound to love it to be honest. I love his writing, I like retrospective books about death and family and friends, and I enjoy piecing together where certain parts of the book take place since I'm an Akron native myself. I can also relate to his experiences with family and cancer and death. Even his father's email blast to the family about the cancer status update reminded me of my dad's texts that he sends out about his latest numbers and results. I would have enjoyed this book even if I hadn't had people close to me die, but I appreciated it even more because I had. Got this as a library book, and I'll have to go out and buy myself my own copy that I can read and reread to my heart's content.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Giffels brings together the physical world of woodworking with the spiritual world of family, friendship and loss. He sets out to build a coffin for himself under The mentorship of his father,a master woodworker. Throughout the time it takes him to design, build, and finish the coffin, we learn about Giffels own family history growing up in Akron in the 70s and 80s, his friendships, and interests in art and music. He connects the coffin through all of his stories into things that matter most in his life. It’s not a sad book. It’s a hopeful one. Quoting Robert Frost summing up all that he’s learned in life, “It goes on.” He’s created something for himself, given to others in his family,and given the reader a sincerer, poignant story that should resonate with everyone.

[Miriam Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book of vignettes, of stories about live, love, friendship, doing things with Dad, and so much more. As I read the book in small installments, I was reminded of the projects I did with my father. I wish we'd had more time to share more projects. You'll yearn for shared experiences with living relatives and friends just as much as you miss your parents and grandparents.

Giffels writes is sweeping passages reminding readers that our friendships and family relationships are precious things and should never be squandered.

For a different, longer review, see the Ohioana Quarterly Newsletter http://www.ohioana.org

[Tom Bilcze · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Giffels tells the story of building his coffin with the guidance of his father. The story is much more than the hours, wood, and sweat that went into the project. This is a book about the connections made through his life, many lifelong friendships, and the emotions shared and revealed in those friendships. As the pages passed, I gained a perspective that death is indeed eminent to all of us and challenges us to move on while struggling to hold on to memories of the deceased. My takeaway from the book is to live life to the fullest and move forward treasuring the people and experiences in my past and present.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me think of my father, who passed away a year ago. Dad built houses and even in his retirement he found projects to do. Whether it was making a headboard for a granddaughters bedroom, a doll cradle for special dolls. He was our go to whenever any of us kids had questions about a project we were attempting. I would ask him a question and he’d get out a pen and paper, drawing a rough sketch or showing me exactly how to tackle that project whether it was replacing a faulty light switch or refinishing a well loved piece of furniture.

Beautifully written, a son’s love for his father comes through on every page.

[Ann Kijinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a thoughtful and insightful book! I found his writing style to be easy but thorough. Growing up and living very closely to his native Akron, Ohio I feel like I know him and all his friends and family...like a cozy gathering around a kitchen table listening to stories, laughing and crying - just trying to makes sense out of death and dying. It’s not a morbid book. Quite the contrary - funny and moving. I’m glad I read it and I will proudly add it to my bookshelf in sequential order of my last book I read. This books simply makes sense.

[Noreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is love for family and friends in this memoir as the author, David Giffels, struggles to deal with the death, while working closely with his Dad building David's own coffin. It's sweet, honest, humorous, insightful, oh and a loving tribute to his hometown, Akron. The special relationship between father and son is beautiful, as is Giffels' writing. For Midwesterners, you will find warm familiarity here. Great reading for both men and women.

[Joan Schmitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read by this author. I LOVED it! Thanks for introducing us to your father, mother, wife, and John. And as someone affiliated with hospice, thanks for writing about death, a topic that remains somewhat taboo in our culture. Since no one is getting out of here alive, prepare your will, designate a power of attorney, write your eulogy, and if so inclined, build your own coffin.

[Stacy Atherton Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this book while looking for something else in my local library's catalog, but the title and premise intrigued me. I absolutely loved it and plan to seek out more of this author's work. He's funny and endearing and entertaining and enlightening...highly recommend for those who enjoy memoirs/biographies/autobiographies, as well as folks from the Midwest who enjoy reading about others from that area.

[John Kav · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of Giffels's books that I read. I had taken a long break from reading Creative Nonfiction, like this memoir, which for a long time had been a large part of my reading and my education. I'm glad I started CNF again with this book.

It's a well-told story, even though there was a little too much back-and-forth for my taste. It will resonate with men and women, and I'm sure you'll find a recognizable character in one of Giffels's cast.

[Deb M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are from the Midwest, read this book.
If you admire excellent craftsmanship, read this book.
If you have or had a best friend, read this book.
If you have or had parents, read this book.
This book is about life. The author shares events that we will or have gone through and he does with great insights. I could not put this one down until I finished it!

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this in the middle of a big life change. So my view is a bit off of the average rating. But it was a comforting read, meandering through the life and times spent with a life-long friend and with his Dad. I've never done any woodworking but I can see how soothing the detail-oriented process would be. Well written family story/memoir.

[Amy Soscia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poignant, beautifully written book about one man's confrontation with the death of his mother, the impending death of his father, the death of his closest friend and his own eventual death. Giffels' writing highlights the connections between those he loves and finds ways to embrace and preserve the spirit of each relationship.