September 14, 2003
So, on one hand, I’m addicted to the seamy steamy moral agonies of Nip Tuck’s hunks AND the gory adventures of Tempe Brennan, the forensic anthropologist heroine of Kathleen Reichs’ murder mystery novels. Maybe it’s because I grew up living above the funeral parlor operated by my Dad.
Remember the movie My Girl? Even closer to the story of my actual childhood is a 1952 novel called My Daddy Was an Undertaker. I might have the only copy still in existence; I can’t seem to locate any others online. The first lines of the book could be my early autobiography:
There was always someone dead at our house….. Daddy was an undertaker. Occasionally he permitted himself the dignity of the "high flown" title of Funeral Director, but was never a mortician.
"Mortician!" he scoffed as the word gained popular usage. "Dietician, beautician, mortician! he minced. I’m an undertaker.
As a result of the oddities of my early years, I’ve always had a fascination with blood and gore, with death and all things that consider it. As a kid, I used to hang around Mr. Wellman’s candy store, where he let me sit and read comics all day for the price of a couple of penny candies. Tales from the Crypt. Ecchhh! Those are the two I devoured with great appetite, in addition of course, to Wonder Woman and Katy Keane – which also were seminal in the formation of my persona and associated fantasies. (My options for kick-ass female role models were severely limited by the times.)
Adults need inspiring fairy tales too. I certainly do. That’s why I was totally engaged by Kathleen Dexter’s novel Fifth Life of the Catwoman, which is a poetically written allegory about prejudice, intolerance, and second chances as lived by a woman who is the Everywoman who does not fit the mold imposed by her current culture.
My former spouse sent me the novel because he thought I would like it. He was right.
It's strange and wonderful how it's possible these days to remain part of a "family," even though you're not a family any more. I noticed that Halley's in the process of finding that out for herself. There are some good things about the times in which we live.
Nip, tuck, poetry, parenting, and promise – almost enough.
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Old Comments (4)
The Dynamic Driveler on 15 Sep 2003
So how many Tempe Brennan mysteries have you gone through now that I reminded you of them, :-) I'm probably going to order Reich's latest "Bare Bones" shortly - I'm afraid I just don't have the patience to wait a year for it to come out in paperback :-)
I'm addicted to her work, Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody series ( good reads - funny and instructive in Egyptian history) and Aaron J. Elkins Gideon Oliver series (If you like Kathy Reich you'll probably like Elkins too - like their protagonists, they are both forensic anthropologists in real life)
Elaine on 17 Sep 2003
I get them out of the library, and I can reserve books online. I have no more room on my shelves for any more books!! Just finished Deja Dead, so now I'll go on to the next one. I remember reading one of Elizabeth Peters', and I liked her too. Too many books; too little time.
Elayne Riggs on 17 Sep 2003
How heartening to read that you're still friendly with your ex! I thought I was the only one! My first husband and I are meeting this Sunday (for the first time in about five years, as he moved out of NY, although we keep in touch regularly via e-mail and have each other blogrolled) to attend the NY Is Book Country street fair. Shoul be interesting!
mark mc lean on 15 Nov 2005
I have a signed copy of the book(My daddy was an undertaker)i purchased at a book fair last year.I was thinking about selling it but i am not sure of the value.