BOOK REVIEW: I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney

I See You've Called in Dead by John Kenney
Published by Zibby Publishing on April 1, 2025
Genres: Fiction / Friendship, Fiction / General, Fiction / Humorous / Dark Humor, Fiction / Satire
Pages: 304
Amazon|Barnes&Noble|Goodreads

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER · One of NPR's Book We Love 2025 · A Gotham Book Prize Finalist · An Indie Next & LibraryReads Pick · AudioFiles Earphones Award Winner · Library Journal | Audio "Editor's Picks of the Year" · 2026 Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List Pick

"Razor-sharp, darkly comedic, and emotionally piercing. With the satirical bite of Richard Russo's Straight Man, the introspection of Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove, and the reinvention of Andrew Sean Greer's Less, Kenney's vivid prose transforms the mundane into unexpected hilarity."
--Booklist (starred review)

Obituary writer Bud Stanley isn't really living his best life. He's fallen into a funk after a divorce. (She left him for another man, who, in fairness, was far more interesting.) He's not doing his job well. He's given up on dating. And he's about to be fired for accidentally publishing his own obituary one mildly drunken night (though technically the company can't legally fire a dead person).

As Bud awaits his fate at work, he does the only logical thing: He goes to the wakes and funerals of total strangers to learn how to live again.

If you are anything like me, you have joked at least once that you are going to call in dead because you just don’t want to go.  Work, a party, anything.  Sometimes you just don’t want to go.  And when you are kinda dark in your humor, calling in dead seems a legit reason.  Though I’ve also said I’ll have to work until two days after my funeral because I need that bereavement pay.  Goes both ways, I guess, when you are dark.  The truth is I found this book because of my library, and my library on Libby.  It was posted as a read-along (or something similar) on the library website, but then on Libby, no waits, no holds, just available for anyone and everyone for a set time.  I grabbed it on the last day, and now there’s a wait list for it, but I accidentally came across this gem of dark humor that honestly, I loved.

Something we don’t usually think about while we are busy living is our obituary.  I took a class in College, Death and Dying, and I did write my obit for that class.  Very tougue in cheek though I have to say that Bud’s accidently obit put mine to shame on the fun meter.  This book was interesting, and I’m glad I found it, even if the path was unconventional.  Learning how to live by immersing into dying.  I recently read something that was supposed to be funny, but really made me think.  You spend your life collecting the people that will attend your funeral.  But what if, what if the funerals you attend are people you have never met?  What does dying have to do with living?

The truth is, while this book is pretty dark- I mean, death- it’s also full of deadpan hope.  I mean, what do you do when you are trying to find your way out of a divorce?  You meet new friends.  You immerse yourself in work.  And then you accidentally write a completely fictitious obituary for yourself and accidentally post it to the world.  And then you are going to be fired, but you can’t be fired because the system at work (the same system you posted that fictitious obit) has you listed as dead.  So your eventual firing gets dragged out ridiculously.  And you meet new friends who drag you into attending random funerals, until that one funeral, the one for your best friend.  It does end, abruptly, mind you, on a high note, but it’s still darkly deadpan hopeful.  And I loved this book.  It made me think, maybe made me feel, but changed how I look at living and dying.

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Posted By: Fizzy Pop · In: book review, I See You've Called in Dead, John Kenney