Furnishing Eternity: A Father, a Son, a Coffin, and a Measure of Life
By: David Giffels / Narrated By: Eric Michael Summerer
Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
No I didn’t weep; but gosh! did I feel, or what?!
Let’s begin this review with a meditation on Review Blurbs used to promote a book. It’s like this, see: When I ponder purchasing a book, I get a trifle worried when all Kudos come from other authors who, apparently, LOVED the book. It’s cuz it exACTly reminds me of an episode of “Frasier” wherein he’s asked to write a positive blurb for a reeeeally bad book -BUT- the author is HOT! and he’d greatly desire to bed her.
It all makes me think that there’s an I’ll Scratch Your Back If You’ll Later Scratch Mine thing going on when that’s all I see.
Case in point from this week? The Witch’s Heart had precious few blurbs from respected periodicals, but man! did it have Uber raves from “Bestselling Author Of…”s, or what? NEVER to be trusted; always should make one wary.
Furnishing Eternity?
Exact opposite! It has but a few Blubs O’ Praise, but all are from the likes of “Kirkus”, the “New York Times”, and others of that ilk. When I see that?! I’m THERE… esPECially if it’s totally on sale, say, like, on Chirpbooks or something.
Add to that a thought provoking premise: A man, author David Giffels, beginning to ponder Life and Death and Loss and Grief and coming up with the idea to enlist his woodworking dad’s aid in building his own coffin? I LOVED that concept!
So well-written, and suffice it to say that, tho’ I shed nary a tear, I was truly engaged in the entirety of the story, and I was led to ponder, to feel deeply, to smile here and there, and to dread now and again the inevitability of Death happening as we trundle along through our Lives.
Giffels offers a memoir here of a period of his life that COULD be dark, bleak, sorrowful. Instead, he manages to get through that time by contemplating his mortality, the meaning of life, the possibility that these great sorrows that are woven through our lives, perhaps, have no meaning. That one is just faced with life-altering events (A diagnosis here, a diagnosis there, a friend’s complete physical breakdown/weakening, an adventurous mother’s circle of life getting smaller and smaller), and one picks up and walks through each following day, to day, to day. Sometimes sobbing for hours, crying so hard the entire body is sore the next day.
The writing is truly spectacular, with the introduction of much-loved family members. much-loved friends, placed early on, complete with how they were seen and experienced at earlier ages, times when relationships were forming, and they’re times that entirely shape the way each is viewed throughout time. A father in his 80s? No, a hale and hearty younger man who once built a bridge across the Rhine. A mother brought so low by illness she says she’s ready for death? No, a younger woman who was daring and a chameleon of identities worn, put away in favor of the Next Interest.
A very good friend shuffling outside, desperately trying to get 10-steps in as exercise for the day but feeling almost overwhelmed by exhaustion and the pain of new aches, new wrinkles in an already complicated illness?
No.
A younger man, a boy really, who created artwork, provocative art installations that told stories. Or throughout the entire life: A man who stayed vibrant and alive through a love of music, live or otherwise. This is a friend who, through the structuring, through the writing, we come to know and love.
All of them, we grow to love. So when reality strikes, when life happens, when sickness, struggles, the contemplation of fewer and fewer days available come to fore, we the listeners are absolutely devastated. As much as Giffels himself is through each trial, each outcome.
Eric Michael Summerer does really well with his narration here, turning in a thoughtful and ultimately complex performance. He handles the lower-key thoughts milling around the brain of Giffels; he handles the utter sorrow that falls into life. Further, as this is ultimately a look at the Father/Son bond, the growing relationship of an already strong one through the creation of a casket, he does Giffels’ father justice. We hear an older man, in his 80s, who is tough, strong, creative like crazy, a man with mad woodworking skills imparting wisdom to a, yeh hardworking, son, but a son who is a trifle scattered and impulsive. Many are the times the two are working on the coffin and Giffels mangles the wood, doesn’t cut an edge properly. But Dad, with his 80+ years of wisdom and experience, shows patience, doesn’t condemn, takes over and guides instead of reprimands. This is a man Summerer expresses in a way where we feel his patience, we feel his quiet love. Well done, really.
While this is indeed a grand Father’s Day book, an awesome development of trust through shared activity, through a look at their own mortality as they work, this is also a Deep In The Wallow of Sorrow experience. Giffels goes through a lot of painful losses in an almost cyclical fashion. At first it comes off as Tragedy; then it gets a bit Existential; but then it becomes an acceptance that allows for the getting up for each day, that allows for putting one foot in front of the other, that allows for accepting, indeed seeking! new opportunities for life experience.
Truly a wonderful little story. And it’s one that is quietly well-done.
Just a little gem of Contemplation, one that deserves a wide audience.
Because? Death and taxes? Some don’t pay taxes; but all of us will be experiencing Death through the loss of loved ones, through facing our own helplessness. Hopefully with dignity, with acceptance, with peace.
With knowledge of a life well-lived…
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