Death Without Dignity
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Disner himself looked both better and worse than he had when I last saw him crumpled in front of the toilet. His eyes were now shut, as was his mouth (though he still looked as if he had just said “okay”). The mortician had earned his pay by repairing the wound in Disner's forehead with makeup (probably a kind of putty akin to Bondo), even leaving Disner with a slightly furrowed brow, giving him the appearance of someone troubled by what had happened to him--or cool, like someone trying to pick up a date at a single's bar. Disner wore an unsullied green suit, with a yellow vest, taking with him into eternity the school colors. What troubled me the most was the waxy appearance the makeup gave Disner, making him look like a lacquered mannequin. I've always been under the impression that the ideal is to make a dead person look as if he is about to spring back into life, or, at worst, to appear to be sleeping. A line from Browning's “My Last Duchess” popped into my head (“That's my last Duchess painted on the wall / Looking as if she were alive.”) Disner just looked dead, like a toy doll whose batteries had run down. Of course, lying in a coffin didn't do much to improve his appearance, even with the velvet lining. After giving Disner one last close-up viewing--during which I got a whiff of an odor that reminded me of the green liquid soap contained in the dispenser in the men's room--I sat down in the fifth row of pews and watched the other viewers. Mostly, they were mourners, though I did spot a few who seemed to be simply curious onlookers and a couple of ghoulish types who appeared to enjoy going to funerals, like the title characters in HAROLD AND MAUDE. Others acted as if they were in a haunted house--or in a church for the first time in their lives. One couple looked as if they were standing in line just for the sake of standing in a line and could have just as easily been waiting outside a theater or Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not Museum. One person in line got a call on his cell phone while he was waiting, a call that he answered in hushed tones.
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About the Book
Tyler Davidson has just discovered his colleague, Hugh Disner, dead in the men's room of the building in which they both have offices at a second-tier state university. Tyler immediately becomes a suspect since he has a known history of disdain for Disner and is hounded throughout by a no-nonsense detective named Smockley. He complicates matters by starting a relationship with Disner's widow, Breda. Meanwhile, Tyler fears that he himself might the next murder victim. What develops is the unraveling of the mystery surrounding Disner's death, along with a study in paranoia, one which colors everything Tyler does, from teaching classes, to grading papers in his office or home, to attending committee meetings, and to promoting his novel called DAVIDSON'S HELL (a modernized version of Dante's “Inferno”). Interlaced is a humorous treatment of academia, including pretentious professors, feckless administrators, inept students, and silly traditions. DEATH WITHOUT DIGNITY is sure to keep you laughing while you feel all of Tyler's fear and suspense.
About the Author
Joseph Meigs was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Berkeley, California, and Jacksonville, Florida. He holds a B.A (1964) in English with minors in chemistry and biology, having attended the University of Florida on a basketball scholarship. He received his PhD in English there in 1970 and went on to teach literature and film studies at Western Carolina University until retiring in 2005. He has been a photographer and watercolor painter for approximately thirty years, currently serving as the resident artist for the Jackson County (North Carolina) Arts Association. He is the author of the novel TENURE TRACK (published in 2002). He enjoys skiing, golf, and restoring Datsun 240Z's.