St. Burl's Obituary
by Daniel Akst
Nominations: LA Times Finalist 1996, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1997
Date Read: September 16, 2023
St. Burl’s Obituary is an odd novel that, for me, went in and out of interest. Burl is morbidly obese, although the author’s ratio of weight vs. girth seemed really off to me. Over his lifetime, he has done everything he could to lose weight until he finally surrendered to the fact that he loves food and he loves to eat.
His resignation flags, however, when his co-worker Norma, who Burl has pined after for years, says that she would fuck him if he lost weight. As would just about any man, he immediately resolves to diet. And he does lose weight. For a time. And in that time, he and Norma fool around but are never consistently physical.
All of this is tempered by the fact that Burl witnessed the tail-end of a hit job at the restaurant he co-owns and can identify the mobsters involved. They know his identity too and begin threatening his life to prevent him from testifying. Terrified, Burl flees and a saga befitting Augie March ensues.
Burl joins a cult, possibly impregnates one of their members, gets molested by a gay friend, has gastric bypass surgery and learns to live on nothing but water and protein shakes. He becomes homeless and when a fellow urban survivalist dies, Burl assumes his identity, no longer out of fear, but more for a do-over. But Burl cannot help but miss his old self.
Eventually, Burl returns to New York from Salt Lake City and attends his own funeral. He is able to pass himself off as Abe because of his dramatic weight loss and the growth of a beard. He is able to literally walk around in someone else’s shoes. Yet, he knows he can never fully shed who he is and he begins to see the joy that his previous life once brought him.
Akst relays Burl’s self-discovery with articulate and insightful prose. I couldn’t help but feel he could have gotten his point of view across in a shorter amount of time. Burl’s saga seems to go on and on and I often thought, just get to the point already.
“America was a kind of cult in which individuals were replaced by consumers and amusements supplanted satisfactions.”
“…happiest when he slurred it most because then he was really safest from himself.”
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