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 threa...
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