For nearly four decades, poet, essayist, and small-town funeral director Thomas Lynch has probed relations between the literary and mortuary arts, most notably in the National Book Award finalist The Undertaking. In the career-spanning 23 essays here, Lynch describes the Midwinter Conference for Michigan funeral directors—which incongruously takes place on an island in the Caribbean—and muses on fatherhood, Irish heritage, and the loss of a beloved pet.