Wow! This book is worthy of the hype. An absolutely riveting story......I simply could not put it down. The fact that this book tells a very real story.......a scenario that played out many times in the days when diphtheria ravaged small towns....makes it all the more harrowing. This is a haunting tale, that will stay with the reader long after the last page has been read. This probably isn't one for the easily disturbed....otherwise, I recommend for anyone who likes hard hitting books. ( )

2.5 stars

In a small town in Wisconsin in the 19th century, “you” (Jacob) is a preacher, an undertaker (and apparently, a sheriff, which I missed). An illness has come into town and people are dying. Not only that, there is a wildfire nearby.

It’s a short book. Right off the bat, I wasn’t liking the second-person narrative, so I didn’t like the writing style. It wasn’t easy to follow, and for a while there were a couple of people who I wasn’t sure whether or not they were dead or still alive, after all. I appear to be in a minority, but I’m not a fan of this one. ( )

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13468698

While I can see that A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O’Nan is an amazing and imaginative story, I wasn’t all that fond of this story of grief and suffering. I think it probably hit a little too close to home as it was so easy to compare what the small town of Friendship, Wisconsin was going through with it’s diphtheria epidemic and what we are facing with the Covid-19 virus.

Jacob’s story is harrowing, he and his small family settled in this town after the American Civil War, he has become the town’s undertaker, sheriff and preacher and so he has to face this disease on so many levels. It is heart-breaking that he quietly goes about his township duties, all the while we know that he has become totally unhinged by grief and despair. To make matters even darker, there is a wild fire racing through the north woods coming straight for the town.

A Prayer for the Dying is very bleak yet it is beautifully written. It reminded me at times of a bible story, where the main character must make major life decisions for others but the choices are so limited that there really isn’t a right or wrong thing to do. Had I read this at a different time, I would probably be raving about it, but unfortunately, amid the stress and tragedy that is happening in our world today, the spiritual and philosophical questions that it raises didn’t really sink into my consciousness. ( )

First the sickness spreads
then flames, inevitably
no time for grieving.
( )