Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality

by Thomas Lynch

Masterful essays that illuminate not only how we die but also how we live.

Thomas Lynch, poet, funeral director, and author of the highly praised The Undertaking, winner of an American Book Award and finalist for the National Book Award, continues to examine the relations between the "literary and mortuary arts."

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Death, Memoir, Poetry, Psychology

273 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

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

[Shreyas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Way We Are is mandatory reading.

[Bronson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a good surprise book. I don't know where I got this one from, if it was given to me or if I picked it up at a bookstore and put it on the shelf but I recently picked it up and I couldn't have been more impressed.
It's a memoir / collection of essays. He gives his thoughts on life, death, marriage, divorce, alcoholism, poetry, funerals, kids, and cats. Its intelligent, witty and poetic.
I don't often underline in my books but I always wanted to have a pen or pencil handy when I read. There are some great insights and his mastery of language and expression is so much fun.
I'll be recommending this to a few friends. Its too good not to share.

[Ron Mohring · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag, in my opinion, which is too bad because I'm a huge fan of Lynch's poetry and feel also that _The Undertaking_ was an amazing book. There's just a lot of talkiness here, and repeated themes and pseudo-hip references that remind me of elderly relatives--"Stop me if I've told you this before"--yes, yes you have. This book could have been pared down by half because so much of the good writing really soars, especially the meditations on alcoholism.

So sorry to not have liked this better.

[Anie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection of essays on life, death, and literature. Lynch's voice rolls and writhes fluidly, and his take on quite a few issues is intriguing and interesting.

[Sandra Hutchison]

A book of personal essays by a funeral director and a poet. Good reading if you are interested in either funerals or poetry, and probably even if you're not, as long as you have a fairly literary bent. I certainly disagree with the author on some topics, but I'm glad to have read it. My favorite essay here is the edgiest one, about hating a cat and the runaway spouse it continually reminded him of (and of the hilarious if somewhat problematic poem she inspired). The one about an alcoholic son is also gripping.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so charmed by these essays, especially the one about death and alcoholism. For me, the book lost a little steam in the second half. That could be because I’m in a season of exhaustion or maybe it’s because my favorite essay was in the first half. Either way, I appreciated the author’s perspective and writing style around existential topics. This was a delight, but may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

[Jamie Howison · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much good writing in this book, starting with the opening few lines of the Introduction: "People sometimes ask me why I write. Because, I tell them, I don't golf. This gives me two or three days a week - five or six the way my brother was doing it before he had a midlife crisis and took up rollerblades." As soon as you read that, you just know that the ride is going to be a good one. And for the most part it was, though I have to admit that I bogged down about two thirds of the way through, which is something that simply did not happen for me with Lynch's earlier book, "The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade." That book was more focussed than this one, and it all just hung together in a way that "Bodies in Motion and at Rest" doesn't. Maybe Lynch needed a more determined editor who would convince him that not all of these essays needed to be included in this collection?

I do have to say, though, that pieces like "The Way We Are" (which includes both a rather transparent narrative of the author's alcoholism, as well as really helpful set of insights on prayer) are just so good that I still have to give this one 4 stars.

[Jacob Maranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Bodies in Motion and at Rest" is a book of essays written by a funeral director and poet. The essays range from subjects of love and loss to hatred of one particular cat and a perversely capitalistic 'death market.' I read "Bodies" during the last month of 2022, and it's a book that I find a fitting way to end to what has been a year filled with, well — love and loss.

[Jonathan Hiskes · Rating 3 out of 5]

America's favorite undertaker-poet muses on death and life. The essay on drinking and alcoholism in Lynch's life and his son's was surprisingly good. So was the piece that begins "It is always a choice between the soft-porn movies and the Gideon's Bible.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains perhaps my favorite opening line for an essay: "It's always a choice between the Gideon's and soft porn."

[Connor Bounds · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book just slightly less than his first work, "The Undertaking."

[Simon Kirkendall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off well. Ended a little too religious and pro-life for my taste.

[Giulia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a mixed experience with this book. Many of the essays, especially in the beginning, felt both repetitive and unnecessary. Lynch doesn’t bring an unique view on life, death, or many of the philosophical subjects he discusses in his essays. He mostly just regurgitates things that have been said countless times before, and on questions such as abortion, he doesn’t even seem to have a basic understanding of the topic. His lack of self awareness is also bothersome at times. His essay based on abortion argues that child support of all things should be a choice, which would be an interesting take if he had any information or arguments for it aside from his own thoughts and opinions. He mentions that him talking about this subject will be criticized, as he is a man, but he doesn’t even try to understand why that might be so. It felt a lot like comedians complaining about “cancel culture” without trying to understand why their jokes were racist or even racism as a whole. This lack of self-awareness also shows up in the essay Y2Kat, where he talks about his hatred of both his ex spouse and cat. Though I loved the essay, he takes on a holier-than-thou attitude about his new attitude towards his ex-wife, criticizing his old public criticism of her, despite making many, many not-great comments about her through the essay. I wouldn’t have minded this if he’d been just a bit more honest of his intentions while writing it. Finally, while criticizing the “cost-cutting” funeral stance of Jessica Mitford, he never once acknowledges his own bias as an undertaker or tries to understand parts of her point. I agree with many of his points on how people grieve differently, but it must be added that many people aren’t able to grieve how they’d like to because they cannot afford the exorbitant cost of funerals. Despite mentioning the very high cost of an average funeral, he seems to ignore this topic completely, as well as any that might actually provide him with points hard to argue against.
However, I must say I do recommend this book as a whole. On the essays where Lynch talks about the things he knows rather than the opinions he has nothing new to offer on, he shines. His essay on alcoholism was probably the best in the book, and the ones where he talked about his experience as a Christian, his experience as a boomer about to embark on the new millennium, and most of all, the funeral market offer the reader a valuable perspective on the topics. These essays are well worth the fluff that sadly takes up much of the book, and the end too has some valuable parts in it, though most of it is spent lamenting about the importance of poetry and funerals for chapters on end. His writing style could have done with a bit more editing, as he writes more like a poet than anything and lacks structure, but is overall nice to read and makes some chapters (like Y2Kat) especially fun to read.
Anyway, if you’re interested in the more economic side of the funeral business (a lot more interesting than I thought it’d be), and just a different experience on life, I definitely recommend this book. Just stay strong through the fluff.

[Steven Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

“POETRY AND THE END-OF-THE-ROAD BUSINESS”

Mr. Lynch’s collection of essays addresses fundamental aspects of the human condition. The thoughtful funeral director leans heavily on gentle humor and often on biblical references. He reminds me quite a bit of Garrison Keillor’s writing style. The book’s introduction talks about how he finds the time and inspiration to write. The guy is certainly spiritual but presents the holy stuff in a rapscallion manner. When he was a kid, his mom and a town priest were hell-bent on Mr. Lynch becoming a priest but they were not successful. He discovered the joys of making out with women. As he states, “My Christianity, such as it is, is a day-to-day matter of choice, a function of intellect and instruction. My Catholicism is impressed, embedded, inexorably a part of my being. It is instinct and intuition. I might cease to believe as one, but I will ever behave and misbehave as one.” The funeral director is quite matter-of-fact but respectful about dealing with a corpse. He does not present messy details about prepping the bodies for display. What little profanity that is used, it is of the mild sort.

‘Bodies in Motion and at Rest’ addresses such things as the death of their town’s sexton; trying to help a friend who is a hypochondriac; how sex and death make the world go round; women’s wombs; getting the sex talk from his parents and a nun; abortion; Baby Boomers facing mortality and changing how funerals are done; Jessica Mitford and her transformative nonfiction book ‘The American Way of Death;’ growing up Catholic and attending Catholic school; fishing with his son; the gobbling up of funeral businesses by large publicly-traded corporations; media spectacles revolving around celebrity funerals; gambling; funeral director conventions; and the similarities of poets and funeral directors. Mr. Lynch’s essay on his alcoholism and witnessing one of his sons also becoming one is devoid of humor and truly made my stomach hurt while reading it. One chapter really lays into his ex-wife on leaving him with four young children to parent because she “needed to find herself.” His essay about hating his family cat is over the top and likely will offend cat lovers.

The author was born in 1948. While he makes observations about how some of our cultural traditions have changed since he was a kid, he also points other aspects that are timeless. Most of the essays had moments where I was either smiling or laughing. The book was published in 2000 and mentions the looming Y2K fears as well as entering a new millennium. It’s an interesting introspective collection that serves up its fair share of chuckles.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean, yes, I see the flaws with Thomas Lynch's writing- a little too much repetition, namely- but there's just something very, I hate the word meditative but I can't think of a better word, about his writing. There's also just something very distinctively nostalgic about a lot of this sort of calm, contemplative nonfiction from the 1990s and early 2000s. It's false nostalgia, of course, because I either wasn't alive or was very young for most of it, but there's a very specific vibe there, almost like a PBS documetary in the form of a book. I don't like this one as much as the Undertaking- it's a little too horny- but I liked that we got more of Thomas Lynch's sense of humor. And I found myself agreeing with a lot of his comments about the American funerary industry and how much efforts to reform it in the name of social conciousness have only taken these very small, community-based family-run businesses and corporatized them. I don't know. It reminded me of my grandmother's funeral, how special it was that the family who did her funeral lived down the street from her old house, that my mom and her siblings went to school with them, that they knew her before she died and even sent flowers. At a time where Americans are longing for the return of the 1950s-esque small town (though with 2020s politics, of course), where 90% of businesses are small family run enterprises instead of 10%, and everyone knows their neighbors, it's sad that even the last bastion of the family business is being bought up.

Of course, this was all 20 years ago at this point. I'd be interested to know how things have changed since. Oh well, I guess I'll have to pick up the Despositions soon.

Thank you to the Yale Barnes and Noble for putting his work in my hands; despite my love of death-centric nonfiction I don't think I ever would have found him if not for a bookstore.

[Ronnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked this collection of well-written essays. Subtitled "On Metaphor and Mortality," I much preferred Lynch's waxing on the latter, which as a poet-slash-undertaker he offers a unique perspective. Of all 21 pieces here (counting the "Introduction," which is definitely an essay in its own right, focused on why he writes), I liked best "The Way We Are," which struck me as a brutally honest take on alcoholism, divorce, and his and his son's failures; "Y2Kat," which is pretty much equally brutal in its expression of his hatred for his son's cat but is really, again, about divorce, pairing the two in a painful yet cathartic way; and "The Big Enchilada," one of the shortest pieces here but also one of the most profound because at its heart it ponders the question of how we spend our clearly limited time on Earth and what we, collectively, have done with those extra 30-40 years of expected life that Americans of the previous century didn't have. I think my favorite part of the whole book, though, happens late, in the essay "Reno," when a schoolchild asks Lynch at what age he got his "poetic license" and he answered that he was born with it: "I told he was too-born with it--and he should never lose it, his poetic license, his voice, his ear for this life's griefs and meters." Perfect answer.

First lines [from the Introduction]:
"People sometimes ask me why I write. Because, I tell them, I don't golf."

[Alissa Carey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was going to give this a 3, because despite our vastly different opinions on religion and abortion, the writing is good, the arguments are logical, and any essay baring an opposing view still feels like it leaves space and compassion for that opposition. I can respect that.

However. He lost me with the essay where he hates his cat. He loathes this cat. He wants the cat to die for the sin of being a bystander cat in the crumbling of a marriage, a symbol snapped up from the crosshairs to carry the weight of his sense of overwhelm and rejection. He puts this onus on the cat without any room for reconcile, vilifying the cat, deciding it should always represent burden and failure. I’m not even a diehard “cat-person,” but seriously, fuck this guy and his hatred for the cat. Two stars.

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know it's novel, but who ever thought about asking a mortician or a funeral director about life? Usually they trade in the wares necessitated by the problem of a body gone the way of eternity. And be that as it may, this book is replete with metaphors that sing the praises of the living, the hard truths of love, and provides a professional perspective on not just death, but how to live before you get there.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not at all what I was expecting and not in a good way. I was wanting more writing about death and dying, more connection and poignancy. I did not in particular like the authors writing style, I only enjoyed a few of the essays, most were long and tedious. I did enjoy the latter half more, but rather surprisingly many of the essays were rather political (the funerary industry, sexuality) as well being Christianity centric from the get go greatly disconnected me.

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Lynch is a good writer; he has a poet's appreciation for words, cadences and the effects such things have on people.

This book won't be to everyone's taste; Mr. Lynch is a poet who worked in the funeral business and several of the stories in this collection start or feature aspects of his work- and go to deeper philosophical or religious waters from there.

I'm not a fan of poetry almost completely, but I do appreciate good writing when I run across it.

[Stephen Selbst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Lynch is a curious combination, a poet and a funeral director. His essays, on life, death, families, poetry and alcoholism are shaped by his deep sensitivity and his true gift for expression. I didn't love all of the essays equally, but most of them stayed with me. His prose has a truly haunting clarity and elegance that I admire.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Time seems a constant game of catch and release. Dream and vision, memory and reflection -- each is an effort to hold life still, like paintings of fruit and flowers on a table. There is no still life. My son's youth, my age, my father's death -- each is a marvel of time and motion. Each becomes the other, endlessly." (p. 155)

[Lynn Domina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had hoped to like this book a lot better than I did. Many of the essays are full of generalizations without enough narrative or anything else specific. And he takes too many swipes at his ex-wife that make him sound simply bitter and lacking in self-awareness.

[Shanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

really beautiful and captivating, made me feel trapped in his mind in a compelling way that does not last when I am not reading, but I loved it and I might not read it again and I"m very glad I'm not american, but I can repeat things, sometimes, and make them seem like music.

[Erica C · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books to date. A great perspective that has stuck with me since I read this in middle school.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been sitting on my shelf for years. What a wonderful writer. Smart, moving, humorous essays with a truly original perspective on life.

[Danielle Maihofer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by an undertaker in Milford, MI, this author gives a unique perspective on life and death.

[Killian Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The author has such an interesting perspective on life and mortality but manages to keep it light throughout.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas Lynch’s writing is superb! I just love reading his stuff!

[carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed bag