I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Given that it took me almost four years to read and review, it's safe to say this was not my cup of tea. While I typically enjoy collections of essays or short stories, this compilation was just not for me. They felt like stories for stories sake, without humor, purpose or meaning.

Let me start by saying, I am a fan of short stories. This book caught my eye for that reason and the I was a tad bit disappointed with' this book. It has 14 short stories and some were ok, the others were not. Overall, this book did not hold my interest, but everyone is different. Thanks to Netgalley , the author and the publisher for the arc of this book book in return for my honest review. Receiving this book in this manner had no bearing on this review

I had the best of intentions to finish it but it did not grab me, so after a few stories I put it down and didn't end up coming back to it. The prose was intricate and well-crafted, but stylized in a run-on way that I tend not to like. I guess this one just wasn't for me!

I went in with high expectations for this book after seeing much of the praise for it on the internet. Unfortunately, it did not deliver at all.

Each story is one of those "slices of life" but it was so painfully hard to get through. I was bored by the lack of action, the lack of dialogue, the lack of character development. Nothing. I kept waiting for some greater meaning, some reason for why these stories were being told, but I didn't get that.

Instead, it felt like I was reading disjointed thoughts from a journal, an unfinished work. I was so lost by half of it, and it took an immense effort to finish this book.

This is a book of 14 short stories. They were insightful and meaningful. Not exactly my typical short stories. I was not familiar with this author. but I wanted to give them a go. They are a tad intense for me at times. I often feel like something is missing in short stories. This is how I felt with this book. Is it the short story issue I have or the author? I am giving the a 3 point review. I did enjoy, but not loved.

Instructions for a funeral is a collection of stories which focus on reflection on a life lived, not always well, and how our experiences shape our ability in later life to understand not only ourselves but others in our family, friendship group and community. This story is definitely literary and a lot to take in.

Not everyone likes the literary ways. Just needs to be presented in a more readable way.

Instructions for a funeral is a collection of stories which focus on reflection on a life lived, not always well, and how our experiences shape our ability in later life to understand not only ourselves but others in our family, friendship group and community.

I've never read work by David Means before so wasn't sure what to expect. His writing style is quite literary, full of long, clearly agonised over sentences and descriptive constructs so that you feel a sense of purpose in every word carefully chosen to represent so much more than the word on the page.

A couple of the stories resonated deeper than others. The Chair, a story about a mans relationship with his son and his constant guiding, warnings about being carefully near a worn wall which had a drop on the other side. The peril of not possibly reaching his son before he falls must be a constant source of worry for all parents, all through a child's life.

The Ice Committee tells the story of two homeless men (one a Nam veteran), the other a skilled manufacturer both out of work and down on their luck, who band together to share stories, a drink and a scratch card. That hopelessness of choosing a scratch card with the odds against them instead of finding food and shelter, signifying the human spirit can endure whatever the odds.

Finally the story about The Butler, was heartbreaking. A man in a nursing home, wandering the corridors, reliving his "allege" previous life as a butler to Lord Byron. That sense of who knows you, when all those who did know you gave already gone and you no longer know who you are.

A poignant collection of stories, told in a literary way.

I enjoyed more of the stories than I did not. Most were solid good stories with very good writing. Would recommend.

Instructions for a Funeral is an extraordinary collection of fourteen short stories by David Means. In “Fistfight, Sacramento, August 1950”, a simple fistfight turns out to be fraught with history and symbolism. In “The Terminal Artist” a grieving family learns their beloved mother may not die a natural death but perhaps was killed by an overly enthusiastic mercy killer. The description of her loss after surgery was so perfect, “What was hoped for and what happened were at odds.” A story that will break your heart is “Farewell, My Brother” that begins and ends with five men smoking outside a halfway house in Brooklyn.

The title story “Instructions for a Funeral” struck me as hilarious, an angry man planning a vengeful funeral with terrific music. I also loved the superstitious gamblers in “The Ice Committee.” The artistry of “The Tree Line, Kansas, 1934” was in all it did not say and in the clever twists of phrasing such as “A hunch twists inside the sinews and bones, integrating itself into the physicality of the moment, whereas a gut feeling can only struggle to become a hunch, and, once it does, is recognized in retrospect as a gut feeling.” The final story “Two Ruminations on a Homeless Brother” broke my heart.


David Means manages to write sentences and paragraphs that run on for a page or more. In a way, he reminds me of Gabriel García Márquez in his ability to weave a sentence far longer than anyone should be able and not lose himself or the reader. I love the way he concretizes emotion into something corporeal. When we remember grief, we don’t remember the concept of grief, we remember the bodily pain and tension of grief. He understands that emotions are expressed in our bodies, not just on the surface..

“ It’s not just that no matter how often you sort and pick through the story, alongside your parents and your sister and everyone else, you can’t help but find yourself, against your better nature, feeling the big sway and spin of the cosmos—the dark eternal matter of the stars, which, however isotropic or evenly balanced, seem, when you think of him, to be moving in a circular pattern that reminds you that the nurse explained, each time, during each pre-visit orientation, that part of the healing process was to step off the merry-go-round and never step back on.”

I loved this book. I re-read every story.

I received a copy of Instructions for a Funeral from the publisher through NetGalley

Instructions for a Funeral at Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Macmillan
David Means interview on NPR

Instructions for a Funeral was a challenge to get through, even though I listened to them using text-to-speech software. The sentences were beautiful but far too long. More often than not, the long sentences didn't add much to the narrative. Each story was difficult to follow and although there are some themes worth exploring, but the novel doesn't go as deeply into them as I'd like. This collection contains "atmospheric" and "emotional" stories, rather than plot-driven narrative. Basically, if you enjoyed Cormack McCarthy's The Road, you'll probably enjoy Instructions for a Funeral. Otherwise, you may find a few good stories here and there but half the stories are pretty forgettable. I'm grateful I received the review copy, and perhaps someone will enjoy this collection, but not me.

Not an easy read. Some of the stories displays a beautifully crafted sentences, but, alas, not always necessary to the development of the story itself. The stories are somewhat linked, or at least some of the stories are, and give an interesting take on how to live your life when you know you are going to die and have to left an image of who you were.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher, and author for an advanced copy of this book.

When I initially saw this book (I did request based on the cover/title, and knew David Means was well-known, though I'd never read anything of his) I was interested. I was thinking I'd get some tongue-in-cheek, dark humor. Instead...I got really tired and bored.

After the first three stories failed to grab my attention, I'll admit I skimmed the rest. Long-winded run-on sentences are a pet peeve of mine. Ultimately, I felt no connection to the stories or characters.

This collection of carefully crafted stories requires a certain type of reader. This isn't a light hearted beach read - this requires thinkers and true readers. This is written by a man who enjoys writing, each word is carefully selected, and each sentence is thoughtful.

While some of the stories felt more like musings/diary entries, I still enjoyed this immensely.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchanged for a honest review.

The stories of this book are quite interesting in each own individual way. But it was confusing at times and it took a lot of effort for me to finish it. The writing was very chaotic and I found myself skipping sentences throughout the book so I can keep a clear head to keep up with the story line.

This was a wild ride- genre-bending, reminiscent and relevant, humorous and poignant. Means has a way with the short story, a candid voice, unlike any other. This read sparks something!

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I’m not sure whether it was the way this book was written or the masculine point of view, but unfortunately something about it left me cold. A couple of stories stood out to me but there were others that I lost focus with completely.

A couple of the stories in this book were absolutely amazing. A couple of them seemed to miss me completely. All in all, in was a good, quick read.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I will say this for David Means: boy can he write a beautifully complicated sentence. I read two of David Means' short story collections back when I was in high school, and they were very influential for me at the time. It might have been my impressionable young brain, it might have been the amazing stories, or more likely, a combination of the two. While I enjoyed reading this book, I wouldn't say it was influential; in fact, even though I enjoyed the reading experience I can barely tell you at this point what any of the stories were actually about.

The only story I vividly remember was the book's title story, "Instructions for a Funeral." It was lovely.

All in all, worth reading but not life-changing.

'The problem is, my son sees the man I am now and not the men I was before I became the man I am not.'

I have conflicted feelings about this collection of stories. The best of it for me is in Fatherhood, The Problematic Father, “…the fact that my father was highly problematic at times came in part from that fact that he was dealing with me.” Have any truer words ever been spoken? We also don’t see all the versions of our fathers, who they were before they became simply, Dad. I think sometimes in reading we expect men to express the way they feel about their children and fatherhood in the same way mothers do and fault them for their genuine thoughts. How do you explain how it feels being a man, particularly a father, one who can “bear up under certain responsibilities”, about the limitations.

In Farewell, My Brother there is a line about a man named Frankie, ‘he’s one of those who came lumbering out of the vapor, his sway and his sea-dog talk marking him as an anomaly.’ What a gorgeous way to paint the picture for readers, David Means can certainly give life to his characters. His is a keen eye into decline, ruin. I feel a deep sense of detachment moving through so many of the characters, that hopeless feeling of pointlessness. There is suffering, sure, anyone alive suffers but even meeting the pulsing source, the cause which so much of the time is the life we’re living, doesn’t change much for us. Life can feel like a mystery illness sometimes.

Carver and Cobain… “his mind is impenetrable, untraceable step by step through those last moments”, which makes me think, in many ways, our minds are always like that, because we never can really express our pain, nor our joy whether we’re an award-winning author or ill-fated grunge star, can we? For Cobain it’s the end… the end… the end, isn’t it? Chronic pain, addiction only those living inside of it can understand the compulsion to obliterate it all. Is there a moment of regret at the very end, shocked awake when it’s too late?

It’s not that the writing is too intelligent for most readers, and there are depths to explore, but not all stories flowed, and I hate saying that because there is serious storytelling in here. In Rockland, the senseless ache, the realization that no amount of ‘humiliation’ will necessarily be a cure. You want to fuel that hope for your loved one, but it’s dying, a brother is trapped in a loop of his own addiction, and how do you find joy in the possibility of ‘flight’ as a means to an end to all that suffering. Some of us will never find our path, are fated to be lost in ourselves be it addiction or mental illness, even worse a combination of the two. For all the upbeat talk, the centers, the group homes, the medications and therapies, promises of salvation, for the moments light seems to return to our loved ones, outside in the real world the limitations of reality are waiting for our beloved to break themselves against all over again. The writing is astute but some readers may find the delivery difficult to follow.

Publication Date: March 5, 2019

Farrar, Straus and Giroux