- Paperback: 370 pages
- Publisher: Thomson Learning; 1st Harvest Ed edition (31 Dec 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 015600514X
- ISBN-13: 978-0156005142
- Product Dimensions: 20.2 x 13.4 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
2,015,768 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #56 in Books > Reference > Obituaries
St. Burl's Obituary
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
In this "outrageous, superb novel"(Philadelphia Inquirer), an obese, food-obsessed obituary writer witnesses a gangland slaying, which forces him to embark on a rollicking cross-country odyssey that will alter his eating habits, his weight, and, ultimately, his identity.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Dan Akst sure is one of the brightest authors I've ever come across. Just to start with that statement. I guess one would have to read that marvel of a novel over and over again, just to discover all the literary cross-references he has embedded with such great subtlety. I've read it twice, and I'm sure that there's still loads of hidden treasures. An excessive, a disturbing and a brilliantly talented book. Phew. If we only had writers like that over here.
Format:Paperback
This novel entertained me for as long as I could make the reading last. Please call Joel & Ethan Cohen and have them make a moovie of Burl.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
11 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Brilliant, Erudite and Entertaining
1 Nov 2001
Format:Paperback
I've read this book several times and with each rereading find more to admire. It's rare to find a work that is at once original, erudite and unceasingly entertaining. It succeeds on several levels -- as a contemporary allegory, as a character study of the intelligent, funny and tormented-by-his-bulk Burl, and as a rollicking great yarn. Burl's enormous appetite is a terrific metaphor of our consumer society; his journeys through a hilariously gothic America and his virtual death and resurrection are the stuff of great literature.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
utterly funny and thought provoking
11 Oct 1998
Format:Paperback
This novel entertained me for as long as I could make the reading last. Please call Joel & Ethan Cohen and have them make a moovie of Burl.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Nelmackel
25 May 2005
Format:Paperback
This was a great book. The reviewer 'Gluttony and Tedium' must have read a different book from what i read. I'd love to have dinner with Burl(before his obese-demise), just to share the joy of taste. This book is as good as the movie "The Big Night"--the transforming power of food, both good and bad is profound.
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