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Jul 26, 2011

Athira rated it:

In a little town in Nebraska, octogenarian Esther Myles, or Essie or simply S writes obituaries for the town newspaper, the County Paragraph - not unemotional little sentences listing the dead, but very personal notes characterizing the dead person well enough to provide a nice semblance of who or how the person was alive. Her grandson, Doc, owns the newspaper that was originally started by her father. Doc's sister, Ivy, who ran away with her college professor, when her daughter Tiffany was seve More...

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Oct 15, 2011

Jules rated it:

See my full review at One Book Shy of a Full Shelf

The unusual narrator of this story is what initially grabbed my attention. An 83 year old obituary writer is not the first to come to mind when looking for a tour guide through a small town mystery.

Unusual characters are actually what drive this book. Essie is our octogenarian storyteller. She's had an extremely full life and does tribute to the dead with her obituaries ~ even still typing them out on a 1953 typewriter. Es More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 01, 2011

Karen rated it:

I found this to be a very strange book. I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but never got fully engrossed, and had to remind myself to keep reading it. I skimmed the second half of the book. I really liked the narrative voice of the protagonist, and liked the complex story of intergenerational dynamics within the family. I was completely uninterested in the subplot of Daisy and Lenore, and unless I was missing something, could not for the life of me understand why there would have been any More...

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Sep 06, 2011

Jmcclish rated it:

I really enjoyed this book, which is interesting, because usually I am all about a good story--a good old-fashioned plot driven story. This book, however, contains several stories and potential stories and stories about stories intricately woven around one amazing character, Essie Myles, 83 years old and still writing obituaries for the family newspaper. Schaffert has a beautiful way with words and paints such a lovely picture of a life lived and still being lived. He captured that sense in a More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 02, 2011

Kathleen rated it:

I am a dedicated reader of obituaries, reading them online first thing every morning, my sun salutation. What engages me are the poignant details family members choose to include and the phrases “devoted husband,” “beloved Nana” applied to so many and yet, believed to be unique to this person. Most are complete strangers to me, and yet, I am saddened by lives lost and the new emptiness I imagine in a family’s life.
That was a much longer than necessary explanation of how drawn I was to Es More...

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Aug 25, 2011

Tim rated it:

I came to Schaffert via "The Mermaid in the Tree," a wonderful short story in the My Mother She Killed Me anthology that stars Miranda and Desiree, the child protagonists at the heart of a series of books in The Coffins of Little Hope. "The Mermaid in the Tree" is a very fantastical tale with sprinkles of the grotesque; I was hoping for the same sort of world in The Coffins of Little Hope. But Coffins is a much different kind of story. Though the glorious weirdness of " More...

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Aug 15, 2011

Deb rated it:

Abracadabra. Now you see it, now you don’t. These are the words of illusion, and the illusion of words. The illusion of the written word is thematic in “The Coffins of Little Hope” by Nebraska author Timothy Schaffert.

One of the ways written words manifest themselves is through eighty-three-year-old S Myles, one of the small town’s “death merchants.” S Myles, better known as Essie, narrates the story. She also writes obituaries for the “The County Paragraph,” her hometown newspaper More...

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Aug 11, 2011

Jaci rated it:

Essie is an octogenarian obituary writer who stumbles upon the story of a young missing girl. The girl becomes a cult figure bringing people to the town, while, at the same time, the final book in a series of YA gothic novels is due to come out. Things get a little confusing in that four generations of Essie's family all contribute in some way to the plot.
I enjoyed the writing but needed more coffee to keep up, tsk.
p.3: What good is an obituary if it can be written so peaceably, so u More...

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Jul 25, 2011

Amy rated it:

Timothy Schaffert’s latest novel, the Coffins of Little Hope, is simply a delightful read. Narrated by an octogenarian obituary writer, Essie, the novel focuses on the disappearance of a young girl, which may or may not be an elaborate hoax which quickly becomes news story worthy of national attention; and the secret printing of the final installment of a series of young adult novels which have become a worldwide phenomenon. The novel explores myth, popular culture and small town rural life. Wh More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2011

Saxton B. Little rated it:

I first read about this on the Indie Next list for May, probably like most of you. I hadn't ever read anything by Timothy Schaffert but the story sounded interesting. It's about 83 year old Essie Myles who has written obits for her father's newspaper since she was a teen. It is this and much more. Initially I found myself losing the rhythm and pace of the story but then realized this was due to reading a paragraph or two and then leaving the book as work and other demands interfered. I picked it More...

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Jun 18, 2011

Carol rated it:

I first read about this on the Indie Next list for May, probably like most of you. I hadn't ever read anything by Timothy Schaffert but the story sounded interesting. It's about 83 year old Essie Myles who has written obits for her father's newspaper since she was a teen. It is this and much more. Initially I found myself losing the rhythm and pace of the story but then realized this was due to reading a paragraph or two and then leaving the book as work and other demands interfered. I picked it More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 11, 2011

Jenny rated it:

http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/...

The Coffins of Little Hope
by Timothy Schaffert
(Unbridled Books, $24.95)

Timothy Schaffert's fourth novel, The Coffins of Little Hope, is a the droll, gleefully morbid, and smart, droll and gleefully morbid story of an unsolved small-town mystery.

delivered by an The irresistible narrator is Essie Myles, a gimlet-eyed 83-year-old obituary writer who is the for the Nebraska town's newspaper, The County Pa More...

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May 30, 2011

Heather rated it:

In a small Nebraska town, news is being made. The whole town is alight with excitement over being the chosen location to print and publish the last in the series of one of the most popular and premiere children’s books of the century, with everyone atwitter over just how it will all turn out. As the resident obituary writer in the town, Essie Myles is no stranger to strange and unusual circumstances, but when a young girl named Lenore goes missing, the situation gets more and more odd. It seems More...

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May 08, 2011

Joanne rated it:

I'd really give this book 4.5 stars if I could, but am rounding up because I love the writing. I love that it features small town Midwest (Nebraska) -- the town of Little Hope itself features as a character. The whole book is told from the point of view of S Myles, the town newspaper's elderly obituary writer, who is both acerbic and shrewdly observant. The plot, which is sort of secondary to the characters, is about a woman who claims that her daughter has disappeared...except there's no ev More...

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Apr 18, 2011

Brenda rated it:

Esther Myles has written obituaries for her family owned town paper called the County Paragraph since dropping out of school in the eighth grade, her byline has always been S Myles. At the age of 83 she is years past retirement but is busier than she has ever been. She doesn't let her age bother her, she actually considers herself a part of a group in town she calls the death merchants, the people who are a necessary part of dealing with death, such as the undertaker, who by the way is 78, and t More...

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Apr 11, 2011

Kathy rated it:

Essie, an eighty year old obituary journalist, battles to keep the small town's newspaper in circulation as she follows the story of the vanishing of a young girl, Lenore. The details surrounding the disappearance of the child are dreadfully uncertain. Her mother, Daisy, is a delusional woman who isn't truly dependable to get details from. Some even begin t doubt Lenore ever existed, but only in the mind of her fanatical parent. However, the journalistic mystery story is somehow keeping the litt More...

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Mar 04, 2011

Jackie rated it:

This is a story about a girl who may or may not have gone missing, because she may or may not have ever existed. It's also the story of the small town who became famous because of her, no matter her existential state. But more than that, it's a story of a family, who owns the small newspaper that writes about the search for the missing girl. It's also the story of a reclusive yet extremely famous YA novelist, creator of much beloved and obsessed about fictional characters whose story is about More...

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Jan 15, 2012

Jaclyn rated it:

Huh. Well. I went into The Coffins of Little Hope intending to really love it, but it just didn't click with me. I didn't invest in any of the characters - even the narrator, obituary writer S Myles, who I fully planned to adore. And it's not that the writing was bad. It wasn't. In fact, the writing was very, very good. But I kept reading, expecting the story to grab me at any moment, or expecting one of the characters to reach out and ensnare my heart, and it just didn't happen for me. More...

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Feb 18, 2012

Mosunflower rated it:

This was a fun book! The main character is an 83-year old woman. She has written obituaries for the family newspaper in her small town since her teens and is still going strong. This character has wit to spare. Her story involves a grandson, a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter. As a grandmother with strong memories of a special relationship with my own great-grandmother I especially enjoyed the family dynamics.

There are two other plots woven within the main plot of this family. More...

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Jul 17, 2011

Deb rated it:

An elderly obituary writer, Essie Myles, recounts the year that a young woman claims that her daughter Lenore was abducted. The media is transfixed - the story temporarily saves the dying newspaper run by Essie's grandson Doc - but some people think Daisy is delusional and doubt that Lenore ever existed. Meanwhile, Doc's sister Ivy comes back to her 13-year-old daughter Tiff, having abandoned her for a lover in Paris five years previously.

I loved the narrator's voice here: as I age, I' More...

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Apr 08, 2011

Chelsea rated it:

Essie Myles has been writing obituaries for her small town newspaper every since graduating from the eighth grade. Now at age 83, she has written hundreds of obituaries and has even made a little bit of a name for herself among other obit writers. This also means she knows who everyone in town is and where they came from. Including Daisy, a lonely woman who made local history when she reported her daughter Lenore kidnapped. It has been years since the investigation ended, but a few cult follower More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Kim rated it:

Kind of a disappointment - between two and three stars. This is one of those books that has a lot of little plot lines loosely strung together, so it is kind of hard to say what it is about. The narrator Essie writes obituaries for the local paper - long fancy ones that really get into what the person was like. There is a young girl (who may or may not actually exist) who goes missing and whose story attracts a lot of media attention and cultish followings. Add into that a plot about the fin More...

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May 13, 2011

Katie rated it:

This is a wonderful novel told in fits and spurts, vaguely chronologically, about a little town with a few surreal brushes with fame. The characters are wonderful, the town vivid and fleshy and not overly cute, the little stories dark and surprising. Also in case anyone is still unsure, Timothy Schaffert is fantastic. The man can craft a memorable sentence as well as anyone writing. My only complaint about this novel is that I wanted more in almost every direction. What was Tiff like as a baby? More...

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Sep 17, 2011

jdbartone rated it:

I have two problems with this book. First, the narrator, Essie, makes the following disclaimer within the first few pages: "You''ll say I wasn't everywhere; you'll say there's no way I can know all that I've depicted. But I stand by all the truths in the story of deception." Unfortunately, just because you acknowledge upfront the improbabilities in the narrative given the author's chosen point of view, that doesn't make the improbabilities go away. That disclaimer actually makes t More...

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Jul 06, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

I'm all in favor of quirky, but this was a tad too much. Somewhere out in the vast, empty Great Plains, a little town is dying, as chronicled by Essie Myles, the local newspaper's octogenarian obituary writer. Then a single woman who lives on a farm claims that her little daughter was abducted by a traveling aerial photographer. The cable TV crews descend, the missing little girl attains a cult status as the town is swamped with followers, and the girl's mother is a celebrity. Except that, p More...

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Jul 06, 2011

Ellen rated it:

An 83-year-old obituary writer for a struggling, small-town newspaper finds herself embroiled in intrigue, stumbling onto the story of her career: a country girl has gone missing, perhaps whisked away by an itinerant aerial photographer. Or so it seems. It all could be simply a hoax, or a delusion, the child and child-thief invented from the desperate imagination of a lonely, lovelorn farm woman. The fragility of childhood, the strength of family, and the powerful rumor mills of small, rural tow More...

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Dec 07, 2011

Stephanie rated it:

“The Coffins of Little Hope” by Timothy Schaffert was an incredible story. Some could argue about the ending, but this book was so much more than just its ending, that I don’t think it would reasonable or fair of a reader to simply sum it up but its ambiguousness. Reading the very first sentence I was hooked, and in vain, trying to find another sentence to quote that I loved as much as that first one, I couldn’t. So, in the same stance of Nancy Pearl, who I took this recommendation from, I ha More...

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Apr 19, 2011

Dixie rated it:

The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert was a very enjoyable read – one that I wanted to pick up every chance I had a little time for reading. The story is narrated by Essie Myles, an 83-year-old obituary writer for a small town Nebraska newspaper. The newspaper was started by her father and is now run by Essie’s grandson, Doc. The newspaper’s printing press also happens to be the location secretly chosen to print the last book in a wildly popular young adult series.

Essie beg More...

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Aug 22, 2011

Nicolemauerman rated it:

Thankfully, this book has many stories happening at one. The first is the story of Essie, an 83 year-old obituary writer. The second is about her family with the dynamic changing as her granddaughter returns. Another story is of the printing of the much loved books the Coffins of Little Hope in Essie’s families printing press. The last (and most interesting) is of a local woman who accuses a photographer of kidnapping her daughter. The only problem is that no one has ever seen her daughter. Each More...

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Sep 12, 2011

Trish rated it:

I found this book on a summer reading list off the NPR site and I thought it would be a quirky fun read. It has all of the makings of a quirky novel; eighty-something Essie narrates this story and writes obits for the newspaper, her grandson, Doc, who runs the paper but really longs to be a magician, and a mystery about whether a little girl actually ever existed outside of her mother’s imagination who now claims her daughter has been abducted,--but all of these things do not a quirky fun novel More...

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