In the Land of Long Fingernails: A Gravedigger’s Memoir

In the Land of Long Fingernails: A Gravedigger’s Memoir

Published:
2011-04-15
Categories:
ISBN:
9781553658757
Meeting:
2023-06-07 (meeting #77)
Chosen by:
Gwen
Pages:
233
Language:
English
File size (e-book):
483KB
Download URL:

Description:

Charles Wilkins, then a university student, took a job as a gravedigger in a vast corporate cemetery in the east end of Toronto during the hazy summer of 1969. The bizarre-but-true events of that time-a midsummer gravediggers' strike, the unearthing of a victim of an unsolved murder, and a little illegal bone-shifting-play out among a Barnum-esque parade of mavericks and misfits in this macabre and hilarious memoir.

Amid relentless gallows humor and the inevitable reminders of what it is, finally, to be human, Wilkins provides an unforgettable insider's view of a morbidly fascinating industry. In the Land of Long Fingernails is a story of mortality, materialism, friendship and sexuality… and the gradual coming-of-age of an impressionable young man.

Author Details:

Charles Wilkins is the author of fifteen books, including The Circus at the Edge of the Earth (about his travels with the Great Wallenda Circus), Walk to New York (about his 2002 walk from Thunder Bay to New York City), and In the Land of Long Fingernails (a memoir about a summer he spent working in a large Toronto cemetery). He is the co-author of two international bestsellers, Paddle to the Amazon and After the Applause.