John Kenney’s novel, I See You’ve Called In Dead, is about an obituary writer named Bud Stanley whose life has flattened out – his wife has left him, he has lost his job due to a drunken binge when he wrote – and published – his own outlandish obituary, and he is, simply, stuck. In the wake of his unceremonious dismissal from his job, Bud and a close friend decide to start going to strangers’ funerals as a way to reaffirm the importance of living. There are some cliches in the book – the wise disabled friend, the misfit kid with a heart of gold, the cute, quirky woman who keeps showing up everywhere– but there were also funny moments as well as some particularly touching parts of the book which elevated it past the tropes that threatened to bring it down. It wasn’t the most memorable book but I enjoyed it at the time and was glad I picked it up.