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The Coffins of Little Hope

3.1 of 5 stars 3.10 · rating details · 902 ratings · 260 reviews

Timothy Schaffert has created his most memorable character yet in Essie, an octogenarian obituary writer for her family's small town newspaper. When a young country girl is reported to be missing, perhaps whisked away by an itinerant aerial photographer, Essie stumbles onto the story of her life. Or, it all could be simply a hoax, or a delusion, the child and child-thief i...more

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published April 19th 2011 by Unbridled Books (first published 2011)

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May 08, 2011 Athira (Reading on a Rainy Day) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: source-review, format-ebooks, 2011, fiction, f-literary

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 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 seven, has just returned back to the household. In this sleepy town, around the same time, a girl named Lenore goes missing, or is at least claimed to have gone missing. Lenore's mother, Daisy, stumbles into a church gathering one day and wails that her daughter has been kidnapped by her lover. As news about Lenore going missing grips the town, there is another major event happening - the publishing of the eleventh and last book of the immensely popular Miranda and Desiree series.

I'm going to be in the minority here, but this book just didn't do it for me. I'm guessing it's not because of the book itself but rather related to my reading experience, because the book in itself has elements that I usually enjoy. The Coffins of Little Hope is more a set of stories strung together than a holistic plotline coursing through the pages. I usually enjoy such books - I find them closest to the experience of life, which is never singular but rather several strands merging and veining together. But for some reason, when I started this book, I had the assumption that this is going to be all about Essie and the missing girl, Lenore, so the first diversion in the storyline had me very confused about the relevance of events.

At the core, this book is about a small town and how it responds to suddenly being in the spotlight. There are several micro and macro events happening, and Essie has convenient access to them all. There's the missing girl, the publication of the much-awaited book, and then later, someone reading from a purported copy of the same yet-to-be-released book - a lot of things that suddenly catapult the town to the minds of people across the country. The whole mystery of the missing girl delves around the public confusion over whether the girl really existed or if she was a figment of Daisy's imagination. I'm not sure I managed to figure that out at the end. Daisy didn't seem to want to try and help the police establish Lenore's identity, instead she takes offence at the mistrust and chooses not to beg for help.

There are a lot of flashbacks in this story. Or rather, stories from a time that's not current are being shared as well, in a non-flashback manner. I found that occasionally confusing my timeline. It didn't help that I was reading this book mostly on my phone, and I found it annoying having to go back and recollect when certain events were happening. I wish I could reread this one on print, maybe I will some day. (I have previously read and loved a few books I read on my phone - The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe, and Miss Entropia and the Adam Bomb, so this book just wasn't meant for phone reading.)

I thought the author's writing style was wonderful - a very NY Times-worthy writing style. I loved his many descriptions and narrative devices that he used. The Miranda and Desiree books that are often referenced sound very much like the Harry Potter series, in that the whole world is waiting for the last book, the publication of the books is a very controlled and secret affair, the author is slightly reclusive letting the books do the talking, the storm in the fanfiction kingdom where many have attempted to write the events of the last book. The similarities were deliberate and I could actually imagine the author having a quiet chuckle as he wrote those passages. I loved how they were worked into the story. The books' author, Muscatine, is another principle character of the book, as he corresponds with Essie (secretly) through letters. I found him increasingly mysterious, the more I read of him.

There are a lot of quirky characters in this book and several plotlines running. The one I most wanted to keep reading about was Essie's own family troubles. Essie and her great-granddaughter, Tiff, had such a wonderful relationship that it made me wish for someone like Essie in my life. Tiff's struggle with adapting to her "new" life with Ivy was delicately handled. I'm sure there's so much to enjoy in this book, I just felt there was too much happening and in the end I couldn't get much closure. I do recommend this book however, because it really is an interesting read. Just don't do it on your smart phone. It's also not the kind of book you should read snippets at a time. Both could ruin your experience, as it did mine.(less)

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May 12, 2013 Lisa Ahn rated it 5 of 5 stars

For me, this was an engaging, enticing novel. I was fascinated with the narrator and her family, with the town, the story of Daisy and Lenore, and the novel within the novel storyline. There were so many deft, subtle strands woven well together. I especially loved Schaffert's ability to create three-dimensional characters with such light, unobtrusive strokes. Each character, even in short paragraphs, felt complete and complex.

Favorite quotations:

"But when he looked at a sheet of paper, it was a...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Julie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction, mysteries-and-such, bizzaro

Who is Timothy Schaffert? Does he even exist? Maybe he's just a figment of his parents' imagination and is fraudulently appearing here and there, (like Kilroy on tour) and collecting accolades and kudos under the guise of a mild-mannered, be-spectacled, slightly balding man of a certain age. Maybe he was kidnapped by aliens. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe he's still on the mother ship ... ah, yes, that's it. He's travelling, still ... and not on this plane of existence.

The Coffins of Little Hope seemed...more Who is Timothy Schaffert? Does he even exist? Maybe he's just a figment of his parents' imagination and is fraudulently appearing here and there, (like Kilroy on tour) and collecting accolades and kudos under the guise of a mild-mannered, be-spectacled, slightly balding man of a certain age. Maybe he was kidnapped by aliens. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe he's still on the mother ship ... ah, yes, that's it. He's travelling, still ... and not on this plane of existence.

The Coffins of Little Hope seemed to offer every element that I look for in a good book: a fascinating, intriguing mystery, a plot line that pulls you in inexorably and excellent writing. If I give this author nothing else, I concede that he is an accomplished, talented and inventive writer.

But ... BUT ... really, what a waste of paper. Like Vanessa, Muscatine's daughter in the novel, I beg Schaffert to stop writing. After all, "eight million trees! ... have been sacrificed." And for what?

The reader is duped into beginning a tale about an octogenarian obituary-writer who promises to reveal some interesting facts about her life, growing up in small town Nebraska. Quite rapidly, we are pulled into a mystery of a young girl who has disappeared, but find out even more quickly that she may not even have existed, except as a figment of her mother's imagination. The novel is actually full of "peep show" qualities, wherein people enter and disappear, at will. Characters enter, mysteriously, and disappear into a fog, lickety-split. We follow, cautiously, into the fog and are left wandering in a miasma, the thickness of pea soup.

I am angry with myself, the way I haven't been in a very, very long time that I fell for the book, and read it through to the end. (I only kept hoping there was "more" that would eventually redeem it. More fool me!) I knew, about a third of the way through reading this book that this was not going to deliver anything worthwhile. I knew it. And still, I kept reading, subconsciously pulled forward most probably by the niggling thoughts that said, "But he's such a good writer, that surely he will give me something.

I like to be challenged, shaken up, moved, angered, stimulated, confronted, provoked, enlightened by literature, by art. Any one of those things, among many others, and I am in! But I never like to feel that it was all a waste of time.

Pointless. The reading of this was so pointless that it's pointless to discuss it further. It actually re-invents the meaning for pointlessness.

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Sep 22, 2012 Cornmaven rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult

The last paragraph of this novel left me breathless, but actually the whole story was Schaffert's clever way to lead the reader to that breathlessness.

A story about life told through a narrator whose job is to write obituaries seems counter-intuitive. But when you think about it, obits are really attempts to bring to life a human who has lived. Added to that is a mystery about a missing girl - is she real, did she really go missing? And add to that the rhythms of a small Nebraska town with its s...more The last paragraph of this novel left me breathless, but actually the whole story was Schaffert's clever way to lead the reader to that breathlessness.

A story about life told through a narrator whose job is to write obituaries seems counter-intuitive. But when you think about it, obits are really attempts to bring to life a human who has lived. Added to that is a mystery about a missing girl - is she real, did she really go missing? And add to that the rhythms of a small Nebraska town with its small town newspaper but also its position as the secret printer of a wildly popular Lemony Snicket-type series for kids. With its very short chapters, the book begs to be read aloud on evenings when there's nothing on TV. Or maybe when there is.

Of course the characters are quirky, of course there is a lot of observation and speculation on the part of Essie the narrator. It's all devised to observe and speculate on human nature and the meaning of life: "Happy and sad, happy and sad, over and over and over again. How do you bear it?". Her words, Daisy's words, Doc's words - words, words, words that chronicle all of us. There's the story of a fictional writer that is studied in universities but who died with writer's block, and the story of the Lemony Snicket stand in who is haunted by his drive to write: "If he didn't write, he was certain, he could concentration in his own well being. But when he looked at a sheet of paper, it was as if the words were already written there - he just had to slip his pen into the groove of the cursive." I wanted to go right out and buy myself a journal and start to write myself.

I don't know if non-Midwesterners can appreciate the fact that Nebraska, with its supposed simplicity is the perfect setting for this ode to humanity and relationship. City dwellers might not get the connection to land that the characters have. They might relate more to Ivy, who longs for disconnection and struggles mightily with it, to the point of disconnecting from her daughter. I loved that. I loved the relationship between Tiff and her grandmother - so direct, plain spoken, fearless, and respectful of each other, well beyond Tiff's young years. It was all so Midwestern, and I have missed that so much in my years dwelling in the South.

I won't spoil the last paragraph by quoting it -you'll just have to wander through this novel and get there yourself.

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Sep 05, 2012 Newport Librarians rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: librarian-s-favorites

The Coffins of Little Hope is an odd, yet well-crafted novel that is nowhere near as bleak as its title would lead you to believe. Written by Timothy Schaffert, who has a fine grasp of fiction, the novel is a postmodern tale that contains many disparate, yet interconnected, plots that are well written.

The novel is a first person look through the eyes of a witty octogenarian obituary writer named Essie, who works for a dying small-town newspaper. She becomes involved in a story concerning the su...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Jean V. Naggar Literary rated it 5 of 5 stars

“Each of [Schaffert's] books is a quirky little gem, particularly the first one...There’s a lot of plot to The Coffins of Little Hope. But Mr. Schaffert’s style is so gossamer-light that the story elements don’t become cumbersome. His book can accommodate a large cast of characters who bump into one another with an almost screwball regularity...Mr. Schaffert’s sly wit and frank affection for his characters can make him sound like a very American Alexander McCall Smith. ..A faint but important fr...more “Each of [Schaffert's] books is a quirky little gem, particularly the first one...There’s a lot of plot to The Coffins of Little Hope. But Mr. Schaffert’s style is so gossamer-light that the story elements don’t become cumbersome. His book can accommodate a large cast of characters who bump into one another with an almost screwball regularity...Mr. Schaffert’s sly wit and frank affection for his characters can make him sound like a very American Alexander McCall Smith. ..A faint but important frisson of fear runs all through this seeming lightheartedness, giving the book a spooky undercurrent.” --The New York Times

“Memorably narrated by octogenarian obit writer Essie Myles, this is a witty, sometimes profound story about media, mortality and rash acts undertaken in the name of love.” --People, four stars

“It's small town, big drama in Schaffert's sublime latest...Schaffert spins out the story and its offbeat characters with compassion, spoofing the nation's voracious appetite for "news"... Piercing observations and sharp, subtle wit make this a standout.” --Publishers Weekly, starred review

“[The Coffins of Little Hope's] creepiness scurries along the edges of these heartwarming pages like some furry creature you keep convincing yourself you didn’t see...The strange way in which Muscatine’s books become woven into Lenore’s case makes a chilling statement about our urge to romanticize grief...Alluringly strange to the very last page.” --The Washington Post

“Great summer reading—a lazy river that carries you away and drops you off much farther downstream than you expected to go…Part Fannie Flagg, part Stephen King, Schaffert spins a tale that’s funny, poignant and, at times, macabre.” --St. Louis Dispatch

“A smart, droll and gleefully morbid story of an unsolved small-town mystery.” --Dallas Morning News

“Schaffert is a master at mixing the serious and the absurd.” --Time Out Chicago

“The novel is at its heart an examination of hysteria and the blurry line between fact and belief...In Essie Myles, Schaffert has created a unique and memorable narrator." --Kansas City Star

“Another triumph of storytelling, featuring quirky characters, humor, compassion and insight into human strengths and foibles…This enchanting novel is perfect for readers looking for realism with a heart by an author who cares about his characters and wants you to, too…I don’t want to quote the last lines, because they’re blowing-your-mind perfection.” --NPR Morning Edition, Top 10 Summer Reads

“Schaffert is an expert at writing deeper truths.” --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Filled with rich characters and written with both charm and wonder, this should be the next book on your nightstand!" --Julia MacDonald, The Yankee Bookshop, Woodstock, VT, Indie Next List pick

“This one is going to be big. Any bookseller who has lived through the Harry Potter craze will laugh out loud.” --Valerie Koehler, Blue Willow Books , Indie Next List pick(less)

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May 09, 2012 Amanda Snow rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, adult-fiction, book-club-selection, purchased-copy, may

Originally published at www.apatchworkofbooks.com

When a young girl goes missing in Little Hope, a tiny town populated mainly with the elderly, the entire town is effected in various ways. Most notably, Essie, the town's obituary writer. We follow Essie as she, and the rest of the town, become caught up in the kidnapping and the life of the little girl's mother. Questions begin popping up as to whether the kidnapping was completely made up...the ultimate hoax and Essie tries to figure out what it...more

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Oct 15, 2011 Jules rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, sent-4-review

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. Essie is surrounded by oth...more

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Oct 01, 2011 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 myst...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Jmcclish rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 all...more 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 all of us that we are still the person we have always been despite the aging on the outside for all to see.

In one of my favorite scenes, Essie happens upon Bernice a dear friend from her youth. Essie thought she lived with her children now, but Bernice informs her that she kept falling and breaking things and now she's in the home. Essie:

"It did feel as if, even with my weakling's grip I could shatter the bones in her hand with little effort, and maybe that was what made me feel so overcome with affection for her just then. I wanted to take her home with me, where we could live our last days as eccentric relics, doddering and afflicted , our once-a-week curl-and-sets falling apart lock by lock together. We could endlessly reminisce, live in the past to an unhealthy degree, then politely kill each other some winter night before bedtime, stirring poison into our cups of whiskey-spiked chamomile tea, wearing party hats. Then, nervous about our double homicide, we could lie in bed together, holding hands again, frightened and waiting, still wondering, after all these years, if we even believed in our own souls. Bernice pulled her hand away. 'Well, you take care, Essie,' she she said with what I interpreted as a privileged tone of dismissal, and just like that, my fantasy of our last-ditch life together dissolved. Bernice shuffled off, content with how things had gone for her. She had no need for a pact of any kind."

If you want a neat little package all tied up in a bow, you'll be disappointed. But don't miss the beauty in this mess.

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Sep 02, 2011 Kathleen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: pearl-recommendations

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 Essie Myl...more 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 Essie Myles, the 83 year old obituary writer for the “County Paragraph,” the newspaper that her family had published in a small Nebraska town for over 85 years. She serves as the narrator for this rich story, almost mythical at times, relating the events of the town over a year’s time. The central plot involves a young girl who goes missing, perhaps kidnapped by her mother’s sometime lover, Elvis, an aerial photographer, who has also charmed many of the ladies of the town. “On this girl we pinned all hopes of our town’s dying salvation.” What follows involves the town’s and then wider interest in the missing girl and her sad mother, interest that becomes intrusive, then obsessive, which is meticulously recorded by Essie’s grandson, Doc, in the newspaper. “People in our county – having been run ragged by debt and bankers and biblically bad weather for years – had come to need not just Daisy and Lenore but also Doc’s gracious portrait of them.”
Essie has outlived many of her family and understands that life is not often fair, often reflected in her edgy but honest words. Her love for family and her unique relationships with her adult grandchildren and a 13 year old great granddaughter stand at the center of this novel…”I wondered if it was too wistful and naïve to hope that Tiff might make it through life neither too fat nor too thin and perhaps entirely undamaged in general.” Much later, Doc realizes whatever the outcome of Daisy and Lenore, he was desperate for the worst possible conclusion to keep his newspaper (and the town) afloat…”this is not…dignity that I have.” When he announces his decision to close the family newspaper down despite provocative news about Daisy and Lenore, which would continue to serve him and the town financially, and open a different business, Essie understands his need to save himself.
Within this story are many other plot lines, all loosely connected and wonderfully entertaining: Ivy, Essie’s grand daughter returning to town after 7 years in Paris, attempting to integrate herself once more within the family; Doc’s life-long interest in magic and illusion; the story of Myrtle Kingsley Finch, a 1918 Pulitzer prize winner who had lived nearby; a successful YA gothic series, which is secretly published on environmentally friendly paper in the town; Daisy reading nightly over a CB radio from an alternative version of “Coffins,” allegedly written by her daughter in anticipation of the long awaited final book; and Wilton Muscatine, the mysterious author of the series who begins a secret correspondence with Essie.
The final sentences were lovely, filled with words that hover behind the obituaries that Essie and I honor…”You were young…not once, but always before, always, always, every day before the day just passed...” Thank you, Nancy Pearl, for recommending this book.

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Aug 25, 2011 Tim Storm rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 "The Mermaid" flitters at t...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Deb Carpenter rated it 5 of 5 stars

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. In fact, sh...more 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. In fact, she has written about the deaths of her townspeople since she dropped out of eighth grade to work for her father, who published the town’s paper. Essie’s son was the next publisher, until his death in a tragic car accident. Her grandson, Doc, whose dream was to open a magic store, inherited the paper and now tries to keep both the paper and the town alive.

One of the ways Doc has resuscitated the “Paragraph” is by secretly publishing books in a popular series. The “County Paragraph” has been using its press to print a portion of the Miranda and Desiree novels since the 9th book. Now they are printing the 11th and final book, “The Coffins of Little Hope.” The entire town knows about the book and is in on the deception. Like magicians holding the secret to a trick, the narrator tells us, “none of us breathed a word to anyone.”

Written words are not the only illusion in Schaffert’s novel. The “now you see it, now you don’t” magic permeates this book and crosses over into reality in a number of ways, where art imitates life or life imitates the art of illusion. Disappearance by death is the strongest theme, but other disappearances are also prevalent.

One example is an integral story within the story, that of Daisy and Elvis and Lenore. When Daisy’s boyfriend Elvis leaves her without saying goodbye, Daisy reports that her daughter Lenore is missing. There seems to be very little evidence of an actual child, but the town plays a part in backing Daisy’s story, and profits by keeping the news or possibly the illusion alive. The “County Paragraph” runs articles about the missing Lenore on a regular basis and little businesses spring up to cater to the “Lenorians.” The narrator tells us, “On this girl we pinned all hopes of our dying town’s salvation.” She goes on to say that the disappearance of Lenore “enlivened the town yet ruined its soul.”

The narrator’s occupation, that of writing obituaries, also links the themes of disappearance and the words of illusion. Her words are meant to immortalize the dead and keep that person forever young, but sometimes the words distract the reader from reality. Only when the subject is dead does that person really come alive in Essie’s well-crafted obituaries.

Schaffert uses stories within the story to the same effect that a magician uses distractions, to disguise what is really happening and trick people into seeing something else. This is an effective way to provoke thought and discussion and test the gullibility or the faith of audience members. Schaffert does this with his readers. When readers look past the smoke and mirrors, they realize the underlying message of the book is the disappearance of small towns, and the extent to which our rural communities go to survive or to appear to be alive.

Like a side-show magic act, words lure an audience to watch a small town disappear before their eyes. No matter how hard townspeople try, especially using the written word, to resurrect what once was, the spirit and the physical are separated. The assistant is not in the part of the box that is visible. Only a shell of what once was remains. The coffin offers little hope of life after death. The small town is hurtling towards the end, and even though we who live in a rural community still feel vital and very much alive, Schaffert wants us to wonder what comes after those illusive words, “abracadabra.” Will they be “Now you see it, now you don’t.” ?

by Deb Carpenter-Nolting(less)

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Aug 11, 2011 Jaci rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 undisturbing...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

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. Whi...more

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Jun 18, 2011 Carol rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Carol by: IndieNext

Shelves: fiction

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 11, 2011 Jenny Shank rated it 5 of 5 stars

http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainme...

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 Paragraph. Essie is the who Essie counts herself among th...more

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May 30, 2011 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 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 the town is not entirely convinced that little Lenore even existed, let alone has gone missing, and when her mother Daisy can’t produce the evidence that the town so desperately needs in order to begin searching for the young girl, Essie takes it upon herself to get to the bottom of things. Meanwhile, Essie’s thirteen year old great-granddaughter, Tiff, is going through a difficult time due to the reappearance of her mother after several years of abandonment, and Essie’s grandson Doc is strangling under the weight of his job as the editor of the local paper. Is Lenore really only a figment in the imagination of a woman seeking attention, or is there more to the story? And what will become of Essie and her brood as the foundations of their family are realigned and resituated? These are the questions that underpin the strangely melodious tale of The Coffins of Little Hope, the witty and intriguing new novel from Timothy Schaffert.

This was a story that had many different levels and components, all working in harmony together very nicely. Schaffert gives us the tale of a town that is alight with all sorts of excitement and fervor, and hones in on one family and their reaction to it all. Aside from the children’s book being published and the mania it brings to the little town, there is the Lenore contingency that threatens to overrun its borders and has in fact become national news. As Essie ponders her family’s troubles, she also decides that she will be the one to get Daisy to admit that Lenore is nothing but a ghost from inside her own mind. But Daisy is having none of this and continues to assert Lenore’s existence ardently. At first I thought it strange that no one in the town was searching for the young girl, but then I came to understand the logistics of the problem. Too many people surrounding Daisy had reason to believe that the little girl was only a lonely woman’s way to get the attention that had been denied her for so long, and as such, they never took Lenore’s plight very seriously at all.

Of course, the town was not above keeping the spotlight turned on the Lenore case for the notoriety that it won them, and as the paper ran feature after feature on the case, I began to see that the town was milking the Lenore situation for all it was worth. Doc and Essie could especially be blamed for this, and as more and more strange people and circumstances began to surround Daisy, the town grew more and more embedded in her story. The mystery of whether or not Lenore even existed was constantly turned over and over in the narrative, the townsfolk choosing to remain sceptical and non-committal, even to its final conclusion. As Lenore’s absence lengthens, her strange circumstance draws people towards Daisy in a sort of religious fanaticism and Daisy becomes the acolyte of a new kind of church that lives to pay homage to her missing daughter.

The other half of the book focuses on the series of children’s books that are being printed in the town and how these books have a particular importance in the life of Essie and her family. When Essie begins to secretly correspond with the author of the books, she discovers that all is not what it seems with him. As the books go to print, there is some anxiety that parts of the story will be leaked; a situation that causes Doc to become very nervous, as he is also the owner of the press that prints the books. The possibility of the particulars of the book being leaked is not Doc’s only concern, for as the sole guardian of Tiff, he must now step aside when her mother comes back into the picture, a fact that disheartens and weighs on him. Meanwhile, Essie is struggling with not only her family troubles, but with the realities of her work as an obituary writer, feeling that her time in this particular career is almost over. Schaffert delivers these intertwined stories with a stylistically lush yet somehow sparse narrative, deliciously serving it all up with a quirky style and smooth dialogue.

Though I wasn’t sure what to make of this book when I first picked it up, I did end up loving it. It has all the classic hallmarks of a great and invigorating read, and I grew to be particularly fond of the quirky stories and characters that populated the pages. It’s the kind of book that’s easy to relax into and let the story wash over you, and though things are not neatly tied up in the end, there’s room for a great deal of speculation when it comes to how thing turn out for Daisy, Essie, and her family. A gem of read that will please even the most picky readers. Recommended.(less)

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May 08, 2011 Joanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mystery

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 eviden...more

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Apr 18, 2011 Brenda Casto rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 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 the town florist who is 81, and the youngest of the group is the cemetery caretaker who is only 56.
A couple of things propelled the tiny little town into the spotlight. The first was when the County Paragraph's printing press was chosen to print a portion of the wildly popular but also banned series called Miranda and Desiree. Because the books were banned the publisher used tiny obscure printing companies to covertly print the novels., The second big bit of news was when a girl named Lenore went missing. Her mother Daisy worked for the printing press, and had taken up with a drifter she called "Elvis" a man who took ariel pictures of peoples farms. On the day that he up and leaves Lenore comes up missing as well. Because Daisy was such an unreliable person, people began to wonder if Daisy ever really had a daughter. When Daisy finally asks Essie to write Lenore's obituary, the obituary instead becomes a story of a missing girl, who may or may not have existed.

I always enjoy reading books that grasp the real flavor of the small town, and this one does just that. Just like most small towns there are always a few quirky characters who always add a bit of humor to any story.

I loved that the story is told thru the voice of Essie an 83 year old woman, whose first obituary was actually an essay about her mother who died while giving birth to her. There are several secondary story lines going on in the story such as the relationship between Tiffany and her mother Ivy, as well as the relationship between Tiffany and Doc, who stepped in to take care of his niece when her mother left. I found the preacher quite interesting , while he preached against the banned books, his wife secretly read them.

An intricate story, with no real closure at the end allowing the reader to reach their own conclusions.While not a compelling book that had to be read in one sitting, I still found it an enjoyable read.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. (less)

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Apr 11, 2011 Kathy Hiester rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 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 little town alive in a depressed economy and attracting spectators from all over who have a wish to help find the young child. Then, rumors begin to surface about the small town being involved in printing the 11th and final book in a very popular book series. When, Lenore's mother Daisy begins broadcasting the reading of what might be a smuggled duplicate of the long awaited book, before its release date, the townsfolk begin to wonder if Lenore's disappearance was all just a fraud to promote the book.

The Coffins of Little Hope is something totally different, with a storyteller who is in her eighties the reader gets a completely different viewpoint. Death and dying, aging and living life to its fullest are all explored in this book. Even though many readers will experience a generational gap between themselves and the main character, Essie, her life challenges are still fun to read about. She's a strong willed with a determined disposition, who is easy to find laudable partly because of her freedom. Essie lives by herself and even still drives a car. Also, many subplots are found in this book, dealing with Essie's granddaughter Tiffany and her long lost mother returning to her life unexpectedly, and the quirky relationship Essie encourages with the author of the popular series are just a few.

The Coffins of Little Hope is a profound and multifaceted book and I would recommend this book to readers who pride themselves in finding hidden significance in books. I know somehow there is quite a bit more to this book than I was able to acquire from it. I read it as a story, taking it at face value, but I think there is another dimension waiting for another day.

4 Stars(less)

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Mar 04, 2011 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: work-review-related-reading

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 to...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Jaclyn rated it 2 of 5 stars

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.

The stor...more

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May 17, 2012 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

What a surprising, clever, weird, and addictive little book. Great writing that captures small town life beautifully and a plot that's a little creepy, but stops just short of being thoroughly disturbing. S Myles, the novel's octogenarian narrator famous for the obituaries she writes for the local paper, is gruff and plucky but with enough sentimentality to make her impossible to resist. Schaffert's prose makes all of his characters -- even those only involved in the story for a paragraph or two...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Mosunflower rated it 4 of 5 stars

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. The first b...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Deb rated it 3 of 5 stars

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'm suscepti...more

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Apr 08, 2011 Chelsea rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 3 of 5 stars

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 final i...more

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May 13, 2011 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-fiction

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 things worse sin...more

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About Timothy Schaffert

Author of four novels: The Coffins of Little Hope, Devils in the Sugar Shop, The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God, and The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters. Director of Nebraska Summer Writers Conference and the (downtown) omaha lit fest. Online editor, Prairie Schooner. Contributing editor, Fairy Tale Review.

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“We could endlessly reminisce, live in the past to an unhealthy degree, then politely kill each other some winter night before bedtime, stirring poison into our cups of whiskey-spiked chamomile tea, wearing party hats. Then, nervous about our double homicide, we could lie in bed together, holding hands again, frightened and waiting, still wondering, after all these years, if we even believed in our own souls.” — 7 people liked it

“You were young, I thought, not once but always before, always always, every day before the day just passed. You were young only minutes ago.” — 4 people liked it

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