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The Depositions: New and Selected Essays on Being and Ceasing to Be
A wry and compassionate selection of essays reflecting on mortals and mortality, from the acclaimed author of The Undertaking.
For nearly four decades, poet, essayist, and small-town funeral director Thomas Lynch has probed relations between the literary and mortuary arts. His life’s work with the dead and the bereaved has informed four previous collections of nonfiction, each exploring identity and humanity with Lynch’s signature blend of memoir, meditation, gallows humor, and poetic precision.
The Depositions provides an essential selection from these masterful collections, as well as new essays in which the space between Lynch’s hyphenated identities—as an Irish American, undertaker-poet—is narrowed by the deaths of poets, the funerals of friends, the loss of neighbors, intimate estrangements, and the slow demise of a beloved dog. Meanwhile, the press of the author’s own mortality sharpens a curiosity about where we come from, where we go, and what it means. In The Depositions, Lynch continues to illuminate not only how we die, but also how we live.
For nearly four decades, poet, essayist, and small-town funeral director Thomas Lynch has probed relations between the literary and mortuary arts. His life’s work with the dead and the bereaved has informed four previous collections of nonfiction, each exploring identity and humanity with Lynch’s signature blend of memoir, meditation, gallows humor, and poetic precision.
The Depositions provides an essential selection from these masterful collections, as well as new essays in which the space between Lynch’s hyphenated identities—as an Irish American, undertaker-poet—is narrowed by the deaths of poets, the funerals of friends, the loss of neighbors, intimate estrangements, and the slow demise of a beloved dog. Meanwhile, the press of the author’s own mortality sharpens a curiosity about where we come from, where we go, and what it means. In The Depositions, Lynch continues to illuminate not only how we die, but also how we live.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published November 26, 2019
40 people are currently reading
1335 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Lynch
73 books162 followersThomas 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.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
January 3, 2020
Thomas Lynch is both an undertaker and a poet. He lives in both Michigan and County Clare, Ireland. He is an alcoholic, coming from a long line of Irish alcoholics and undertakers but he also is a member of AA. He loves dogs and he seems to understand how a dog can accompany a person through parts of their lives, making the bad times not so bad. He writes poems about nearly all parts of his life and is noted by poet societies all over the world.
Lynch has been writing both poems and prose for many years. His latest book, “The Depositions: New and Selected Essays on Being and Ceasing to Be”, is one of the best books on the subject of death, and of the lives lived before death I’ve read. Since the various essays were written at different times in the past 50 or so years, Lynch revisits some of the same people and events pop up at vastly different terms. Lynch’s second wife he was so happy with in most of the book, becomes less favored in Lynch’s later chapters.
Maybe my favorite parts of the book were about Lynch’s second home in Ireland. He first visited his grandfather’s old home when he was in his early 20’s, and freed from military service by holding a lucky draft number. He was welcomed by two aging relatives who hosted him at their small house until their deaths. He inherited the house and has made his home there over the years.
But Lynch’s best writing is about death and how it affects both those who have died and those loving people left behind. He’s really a beautiful writer of both poetry and prose.
Lynch has been writing both poems and prose for many years. His latest book, “The Depositions: New and Selected Essays on Being and Ceasing to Be”, is one of the best books on the subject of death, and of the lives lived before death I’ve read. Since the various essays were written at different times in the past 50 or so years, Lynch revisits some of the same people and events pop up at vastly different terms. Lynch’s second wife he was so happy with in most of the book, becomes less favored in Lynch’s later chapters.
Maybe my favorite parts of the book were about Lynch’s second home in Ireland. He first visited his grandfather’s old home when he was in his early 20’s, and freed from military service by holding a lucky draft number. He was welcomed by two aging relatives who hosted him at their small house until their deaths. He inherited the house and has made his home there over the years.
But Lynch’s best writing is about death and how it affects both those who have died and those loving people left behind. He’s really a beautiful writer of both poetry and prose.
January 6, 2020
A mixed bag... I've admired Lynch's writing since his earlier collection of essays, The Undertaking. He is a fine poet, and a writer with much of value to say about "being and ceasing to be" than most, from his lifetime of intimate contact in the family funeral business. Once you've read Lynch, you will never look at death and funeral planning and grief quite the same way: he is humane, blunt, practical, respectful, and wry. There are simply some things to be done, and he will do them... including the laying out and preparing of his own father's corpse, alongside his brothers who are "in the business" as well. Including standing as the lone witness to the confiding of the dead to the crematorium furnace, where he muses on why it is that 95% of his students have attended a graveside service, and nearly none of them have witnessed a cremation, when nearly half of today's deceased opt for the latter disposition. All subjects we would mostly prefer not to think about, but he makes them thinkable.
Less successful are the rambling, almost romantic chapters about Ireland and his Irish family - perhaps if you are Irish, you will nod in recognition and empathy. There is a moving chapter about his son's terrible bouts of alcoholism - it runs in his family, and he himself has so far successfully abjured it. And there is a perfectly horrid chapter about his too-nearly-violent loathing for a cat, which is tangled up with a bitter, and deeply angry divorce, and his son's almost desperate attachment to the cat - no animals get hurt here, but the rage is palpable and ugly.
Dip in and out, skip chapters that don't speak to you. But the ones that do, will linger in your head.
Less successful are the rambling, almost romantic chapters about Ireland and his Irish family - perhaps if you are Irish, you will nod in recognition and empathy. There is a moving chapter about his son's terrible bouts of alcoholism - it runs in his family, and he himself has so far successfully abjured it. And there is a perfectly horrid chapter about his too-nearly-violent loathing for a cat, which is tangled up with a bitter, and deeply angry divorce, and his son's almost desperate attachment to the cat - no animals get hurt here, but the rage is palpable and ugly.
Dip in and out, skip chapters that don't speak to you. But the ones that do, will linger in your head.
January 3, 2022
A necessary retrospective of several decades of work, collected when its author is in his 70s. Most of these essays appeared in earlier volumes. They deal with several subjects -- Lynch's life and work as an undertaker, of course; his life and work as a writer; his discovery of his ancestors' home place in Ireland and his stewardship of that land and cottage; his family, both ancestral and the coming generations; the substance abuse he and some of his people have fought for much of their lives. All of these strands often intermingle and become something else entirely.
There is some repetition of phrasing and anecdote, but that is certainly understandable when the reader realizes many of these were written for different occasions over many years. They might have been edited out, but then I think the cumulative weight of them might have been lost. When he reaches one of the new essays (and one of my favorites now), "Mircacles," the power of this repetition becomes obvious and is more than justified.
Lynch's prose has always moved me, often to laughter but also to tears. I am happy to have this collection of some of his best in one place.
There is some repetition of phrasing and anecdote, but that is certainly understandable when the reader realizes many of these were written for different occasions over many years. They might have been edited out, but then I think the cumulative weight of them might have been lost. When he reaches one of the new essays (and one of my favorites now), "Mircacles," the power of this repetition becomes obvious and is more than justified.
Lynch's prose has always moved me, often to laughter but also to tears. I am happy to have this collection of some of his best in one place.
February 19, 2020
I should have just read his first book, The Undertakings. The selections from it in this book were amazing. As for the rest, I dONT GIVE A 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐔𝐂𝐊 about the dozen or so pieces that followed about what it means to be Irish-American.
January 13, 2020
These essays on life and death by a local poet, writer, and funeral director are beautifully written. Lynch writes prose like a poet, with a flowing, lyrical choice of words--many of which I had to look up, always a good thing--and with a matter-of-factness about death that we have lost. I read these words after the death of my second parent, and death does not frighten me. It's a melancholy book, to be sure, but also a reminder that we are only passing through this thing we call life.
June 3, 2020
Occasionally a friend recommends a book, a writer, a poem, and I can't believe that I haven't read anything by them before. Usually, that's because I am impressed by the writing. That is certainly the case this time. Thomas Lynch combines a number of skills: undertaking, poetizing, and writing prose. I only know that the latter two are done well, and assume that the former is as well.
His thoughts on death and the roll of the 'good' funeral in the scheme of life are insightful. Religion, socialization, comfort: they all play a part in the works.
Passages such as these are smart, ringing tough and true:
(the smart)"....know how vain it is to gild a grief with words , and yet I wish to take from every grave its fear . From the wondrous tree of life the buds and blossoms fall with ripened fruit , and in the common bed of earth , patriarchs and babes sleep side by side . Every cradle asks us “ Whence ? ” and every coffin “ Whither ? ” They who stand with breaking hearts around this little grave , need have no fear . We have no fear . We are all children of the same mother , and the same fate awaits us all . We , too , have our religion , and it is this : Help for the living , hope for the dead . "
He is ecumenical: "A version of my ethnically flavored religious training played out in the homes of my Lutheran friends and Methodists , Jews and Buddhists , Muslims and Humanists — each had a narrative about life and death , right and wrong , sickness and health , goodness and evil , life’s endless litany of gains and losses , joyful and sorrowful mysteries ."
And he is tender, but not sentimental.
It is a thoughtful book full and good to read during a pandemic.
His thoughts on death and the roll of the 'good' funeral in the scheme of life are insightful. Religion, socialization, comfort: they all play a part in the works.
Passages such as these are smart, ringing tough and true:
(the smart)"....know how vain it is to gild a grief with words , and yet I wish to take from every grave its fear . From the wondrous tree of life the buds and blossoms fall with ripened fruit , and in the common bed of earth , patriarchs and babes sleep side by side . Every cradle asks us “ Whence ? ” and every coffin “ Whither ? ” They who stand with breaking hearts around this little grave , need have no fear . We have no fear . We are all children of the same mother , and the same fate awaits us all . We , too , have our religion , and it is this : Help for the living , hope for the dead . "
He is ecumenical: "A version of my ethnically flavored religious training played out in the homes of my Lutheran friends and Methodists , Jews and Buddhists , Muslims and Humanists — each had a narrative about life and death , right and wrong , sickness and health , goodness and evil , life’s endless litany of gains and losses , joyful and sorrowful mysteries ."
And he is tender, but not sentimental.
It is a thoughtful book full and good to read during a pandemic.
November 17, 2020
This was an interesting collection of essays on death by a poet who is also an undertaker in a small town. He has such unique perspective on the human condition because of what he does: he travels all over the country reading his poetry and then returns home and takes care of his four small children and embalms the dead in his town. He also has a connection with Ireland since a distant relative left him her small cottage there, and he spent many years in this Irish village visiting and making a vacation home. I'm not a big supporter of traditional funerals but he made me see some things differently. For example, he scoffs at people who say that flowers at a funeral are a waste of money. He points out that no one ever walks into a hospital room where there's a new baby and says, "Who sent all these flowers? What a waste of money!" I like books that cause me to see life differently.
November 11, 2023
This was a thought provoking book about death and associated rituals, somehow nestled into a context of life and living in the face of death. I enjoyed reading this thought provoking collection a bit outside my usual lane; I try to read some different books once or twice a year to provide a different perspective and push my thinking a little. It may also be a good time for me to read this with things my mom is going through at the moment.
There are a few repetitive passages, thoughts, and anecdotes, but it is a collection of essays drawn from multiple books and some new ones added. Those repetitions aren't particularly distracting in my opinion and not so frequent as to be a bother.
There are a few repetitive passages, thoughts, and anecdotes, but it is a collection of essays drawn from multiple books and some new ones added. Those repetitions aren't particularly distracting in my opinion and not so frequent as to be a bother.
Read
August 8, 2020Thomas Lynch is a poet in addition to being a funeral director, and the the writing in this book, which is actually a collection of essays, some of which have been published elsewhere, is lovely.
I thought the topic would be interesting, too, because who knows death like a funeral director?
But it just did not capture my interest, even though I put it down and picked it back up three times.
If I were to rate it I would have to give it a 2, but I feel I did not last long enough to rate it formally.
I thought the topic would be interesting, too, because who knows death like a funeral director?
But it just did not capture my interest, even though I put it down and picked it back up three times.
If I were to rate it I would have to give it a 2, but I feel I did not last long enough to rate it formally.
April 15, 2022
As a palliative nurse, I heard Thomas Lynch speak 21 years ago, at a luncheon organized by the Palliative Care Team of our local Health Authority. I was so moved that I stayed for his evening speech and got to meet him when he signed a copy of his book for me.
Now, when I find myself anticipating my mum’s death, as her dodgy heart continues to let her down, I remembered the balm of his poems and insights.
This collection does not disappoint. His words give me the courage I need to see this through.
Now, when I find myself anticipating my mum’s death, as her dodgy heart continues to let her down, I remembered the balm of his poems and insights.
This collection does not disappoint. His words give me the courage I need to see this through.
November 3, 2019
We recieved this book, " The Depositions" in a Goodreads giveaway, and it was well written. The aurhor, Thomas Lynch justifies working in the busy field of death, as a funeral director. He takes a difficult and complex subject (death and burial) and makes it interesting. Its not a book for the timid, as he lays it all out in his many years as a funeral director, with his unique sense of humor. Well recommended for all ages!
February 3, 2020
I only read the last section, the new stuff. I had read the collected stuff in their original contexts. I like Lynch’s writing in general and consider him one of my favorite reflective authors. As an undertaker-poet (and how many of those are we blessed with?), he is very respectful of life and the human discomfort at accepting it on its own terms. He wears his morbidity lightly, but honestly. Read the book cover to cover if you’re only now discovering this humble genius.
September 21, 2020
The art of the essay doesn’t come easily for most, but Lynch is a master. Not only of the form, but also in his ability to offer rousingly entertaining stories, as the Irish do so well. He clearly kissed the Blarney Stone on one of his trips to the old country. Lynch provides both laughter and wisdom from his years working with families stricken by grief and his many journeys back to Ireland to explore his roots and meet his family.
March 4, 2020
As the author frequently admits, it's odd to be both an undertaker and a poet, and both are highly misunderstood professions. The interweaving of these two perspectives is interesting as a premise. As a reader, I found the sections dealing with undertaking to be more interesting -- perhaps because more novel?- than the sections that focused more on the poetry. Skimmed a good bit
February 12, 2023
I have been reading Lynch’s books since someone gave me copy of “The Undertacking” many years ago. I love his appreciation for the rites associated with funerals and burials.
Not every essay in this collection is excellent, but overall, it’s a great read. It’s time to go back and re-read some of his other books.
And, it’s also time to plan a trip to Ireland!
Not every essay in this collection is excellent, but overall, it’s a great read. It’s time to go back and re-read some of his other books.
And, it’s also time to plan a trip to Ireland!
August 9, 2023
Thomas Lynch was new to me and I had mixed feelings about this.
Overall the essays are poignant.
The one about his son's alcoholism The Way We Were is heartbreaking.
I also liked the Brother and The Same But Different.
This book of essays was the book I picked up to read between other reads.
Overall the essays are poignant.
The one about his son's alcoholism The Way We Were is heartbreaking.
I also liked the Brother and The Same But Different.
This book of essays was the book I picked up to read between other reads.
March 3, 2020
One of my best reads in the last year. Lynch is gifted linguist and story teller who can take a dark subject of death and show hidden truths in enlightened and original way. Mesmerizing prose, vulnerable, and deep. Read it!
August 19, 2020
There's no question that Lynch has a way with words. Although most of the essays revolve around death, they're not morose or depressing. Instead, you learn a little about funerals and funeral directors and a lot about Lynch's family and personal attention to language.
Highly recommend.
Highly recommend.
September 2, 2020
Of the 23 essays in this collection, only the last five are new. I like Lynch's writing so, although I was disappointed that there were so few new essays, it was enjoyable to reread those from his previous books.
October 11, 2019
Well written but just not of much interest to me. Read the first few chapters and then just skimmed the rest.
November 1, 2019
I won this book in the giveaway! I actually learned a lot more, and on a deeper level, than I could have hoped to.
March 15, 2020
Highly relatable.
March 23, 2020
I made halfway thru and then just kind of lost interest. My favorite essay was the very first one from The Undertaking.
I may go back at some point and read the new essays at the end...
I may go back at some point and read the new essays at the end...
March 1, 2022
Just enjoy Lynch's essays.
Read
January 28, 2023DNFing for now because I don't think I'm in a good headspace to put myself into convos about death.
February 14, 2021
This book came my way from my grandpa who read it last year and found it to be meaningful in its consideration of mortality. Lynch is an undertaker and a poet known for his humor and candor; I first heard him speak at Austin Seminary a few years ago. I appreciated these essays particularly for their exploration of meaning-making itself. What makes a good funeral? How is a good funeral like good poetry? How do those of us who deal with meaning-making confront our own mortality? Lynch is deeply vulnerable, spending much of his time probing his own life and family, which makes his writing all the more rich. This may not be for everyone, but I enjoyed winding my way through it.
September 10, 2023
Having really enjoyed two of Lynch's previous works, The Undertaking and Bodies in Motion and at Rest, I thought I'd hit the jackpot when on a whim I looked him up recently and discovered several more books.
They understood that the meaning of life is connected, inextricably, to the meaning of death; that mourning is a romance in reverse, and if you love, you grieve and there are no exceptions - only those who do it well and those who don't. And if death is regarded as an embarrassment or inconvenience, if the dead are regarded as a nuisance from whom we seek a hurried riddance, then life and the living in for like treatment.
To be short and sweet about it, I did not find these recent writings anywhere near as compelling as his earlier work. I don't know if it's because I remember him making more connections between life and death and God than he actually did, or if his views have changed since he wrote the essays in the two books I mentioned. He does write often in this work of something along the lines of "the God I'm not sure I believe in anymore."
Possibly these are the miracles we fail to see, on the lookout as we are for signs and wonders: for seas that part for us to pass through, skies that open to a glimpse of heaven, the paralytic who stands and walks, the blind who begin to see, the shortfall that becomes a sudden abundance. Maybe what we miss are the ordinary miracles, the ones who have known us all along - the family and friends, the fellow pilgrims who show up, pitch in and do their parts to get us where we need to go, within earshot and arms’ reach of our healing, the earthbound, everyday miracle of forbearance and forgiveness, the help in dark times to light the way, the ones who turn up when there is trouble to save us from our hobbled, heart-wrecked selves.
In one sense it's kind of heartbreaking. I found these works a bit of a slog to get through at times, and I didn't resonate near as much with them. There was enough good writing to earn three stars but in my mind it didn't live up to his earlier work.
But today, the easier communications become, the easier it becomes not to communicate. The more rapidly we travel to the ends of the earth, the more readily we avoid our nearest neighbors. The more communing we do, the more elusive a sense of community seems. We are each encouraged to make individual choices, to seek personal saviors, singular experiences, our own particular truth. We make enemies of strangers and strangers of friends and wonder why we feel alone in the world.
They understood that the meaning of life is connected, inextricably, to the meaning of death; that mourning is a romance in reverse, and if you love, you grieve and there are no exceptions - only those who do it well and those who don't. And if death is regarded as an embarrassment or inconvenience, if the dead are regarded as a nuisance from whom we seek a hurried riddance, then life and the living in for like treatment.
To be short and sweet about it, I did not find these recent writings anywhere near as compelling as his earlier work. I don't know if it's because I remember him making more connections between life and death and God than he actually did, or if his views have changed since he wrote the essays in the two books I mentioned. He does write often in this work of something along the lines of "the God I'm not sure I believe in anymore."
Possibly these are the miracles we fail to see, on the lookout as we are for signs and wonders: for seas that part for us to pass through, skies that open to a glimpse of heaven, the paralytic who stands and walks, the blind who begin to see, the shortfall that becomes a sudden abundance. Maybe what we miss are the ordinary miracles, the ones who have known us all along - the family and friends, the fellow pilgrims who show up, pitch in and do their parts to get us where we need to go, within earshot and arms’ reach of our healing, the earthbound, everyday miracle of forbearance and forgiveness, the help in dark times to light the way, the ones who turn up when there is trouble to save us from our hobbled, heart-wrecked selves.
In one sense it's kind of heartbreaking. I found these works a bit of a slog to get through at times, and I didn't resonate near as much with them. There was enough good writing to earn three stars but in my mind it didn't live up to his earlier work.
But today, the easier communications become, the easier it becomes not to communicate. The more rapidly we travel to the ends of the earth, the more readily we avoid our nearest neighbors. The more communing we do, the more elusive a sense of community seems. We are each encouraged to make individual choices, to seek personal saviors, singular experiences, our own particular truth. We make enemies of strangers and strangers of friends and wonder why we feel alone in the world.
December 15, 2020
3.5
This was a giveaway.
This was a book of essays (apparently from previous books?) about the authors life and his experiences as a funeral director, amongst other things (being Irish-American plays a huge roll)
Some of the essays were repetitive, but overall I enjoyed it.
This was a giveaway.
This was a book of essays (apparently from previous books?) about the authors life and his experiences as a funeral director, amongst other things (being Irish-American plays a huge roll)
Some of the essays were repetitive, but overall I enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews