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Sorry for Your Trouble Ann Marie Hourihane

Sorry for Your Trouble By Ann Marie Hourihane

Sorry for Your Trouble by Ann Marie Hourihane


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Sorry for Your Trouble Summary

Sorry for Your Trouble: The Irish Way of Death by Ann Marie Hourihane

The Irish do death differently.

Funeral attendance is a solemn duty - but it can also be a big day out, requiring sophisticated crowd control, creative parking solutions and a high-end sound system. Despite having the same basic end-of-life infrastructure as other Western countries, Irish culture handles death with a unique blend of dignified ritual and warm sociability.

In Sorry for Your Trouble, Ann Marie Hourihane holds up a mirror to the Irish way of death: the funny bits, the sad bits, and the hard-to-explain bits that tell us so much about who we are. She follows the last weeks of a woman's life in hospice; she witnesses an embalming; she attends inquests; she talks to people working to prevent suicide; she follows the team of specialists working to locate the remains of people 'disappeared' by the IRA; and she visits some of Ireland's most contested graves. She also explores the strange and sometimes surprising histories of Irish death practices, from the traditional wake and ritual lamentations to the busy commerce between anatomists and bodysnatchers. And she goes to funerals, of ordinary and extraordinary people all over the country - including that of her own father. 'I had joined a club,' she writes, 'the club of people who have lost someone very close to them.' And then, with her family, she sets about planning a funeral in the middle of a pandemic.

Sorry for Your Trouble sheds fresh, wise and witty light on a key pillar of Irish culture: a vast but strangely underexplored subject. Rich, sparkling and eye-opening, it is one of the best books ever written about Irish life.

Sorry for Your Trouble Reviews

Ann Marie Hourihane is the most elegant and insightful chronicler of contemporary Ireland. In Sorry for Your Trouble she explores perhaps the most distinctive aspect of its culture with compassion, erudition, wit and a wonderful precision of feeling and expression. This is, paradoxically, an endlessly vivid reflection, not just on Irish life, but on life itself. Funny, brilliant and deeply moving, it is a lamp to hold up against the dying of the light -- Fintan O'Toole

About Ann Marie Hourihane

Ann Marie Hourihane is one of the sharpest, funniest and wisest chroniclers of Irish life. She is the author of the acclaimed She Moves through the Boom. She lives in Dublin.

Additional information

GOR012304050
9781844885237
1844885232
Sorry for Your Trouble: The Irish Way of Death by Ann Marie Hourihane
Used - Like New
Hardback
Penguin Books Ltd
2021-10-07
288
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
The book has been read, but looks new. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket is included if applicable. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins

Customer Reviews - Sorry for Your Trouble