Porter Shreve

Gordie is young and gullible.

He pushes himself as an obituary writer so he can be promoted to covering major news stories. This is all part of a plan he's had for years, nurtured by his widowed mother, to be as ambitious and successful as his father had been.

When a woman calls in her husband's obituary, Gordie is intrigued, and agrees to meet Alicia Whiting, the new widow. Her voice, confidence and mannerisms affect him strangely, and her appearance attracts him. Despite his common sense and the husband's sister warning him, he becomes caught up in Alicia and her plan to have him write a substantive story about her late husband.

Both Alicia’s odd behavior and the journalist in Gordie, drive him to conduct research. What he learns is both professionally and personally life-changing.
Novel was actually better than I expected.

Only time will tell if it’s memorable (one of my gauges for a “seriously good” book) but I doubt it.

Reading The Obituary Writer makes me wish I knew more about psychology in general, and the pathology of loneliness and its effects.… (mer)

Young Gordie Hatch is at the beginning of what he hopes will be a notable newspaper career. He's working the obit page for a St. Louis paper for now, but his father started at the bottom and quickly worked his way up to a career in investigative reporting before dying when Gordie was five years old. Knowing how fast his father rose, and his mother raising her husband into a god-like status, weighs on Gordie even more than his loneliness. When widow Alicia Whiting calls his desk to ask for special treatment for her recently deceased husband and implies that he was an important man, Gordie makes time for the young widow, who seems more chatty than heartbroken. Gordie can't tell if she keeps contacting him for the story or if she's actually interested in him, just weeks after her husband's death.

I can see aspects of noir in this story, as Alicia seems a femme fatale, there's a dead husband who isn't missed too much, and Gordie is an ambitious guy who begins investigating in hopes of getting a promotion, but ends up falling for the widow. But there are a few things I didn't like, such as Gordie being independent and ambitious, yet getting cornered constantly by Alicia or her bossy sister-in-law or his mother. Also, this is a modern story but cell phones are for the most part ignored. But still a decent read.… (mer)

I hate to give a book this well-written only 2 stars, but it was tedious reading. In a way, it was the opposite of a Jodi Picoult novel (to which I am addicted despite myself). Apart from the already-mentioned fine writing, the book started off on a low note, never got as high as middle C until the very fine ending, not just an ending, but after that big surprise, another one! Picoult, I find, starts on a high note, never drops beneath that middle C and runs out of steam just before she writes a very brief and disappointing cop-out ending (the sole exception of the ones I've read, being the Plain Truth). Now, if only those two writers could get together we'd get a fine book with moral issues, great writing and a bold and shocking ending.

It isn't going to happen, but a reader can dream...… (mer)