{"product_id":"9781592407125","title":"Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eSix Feet Under\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e meets \u003ci\u003eThe Wire\u003c\/i\u003e in a dazzling and darkly comic memoir about coming-of-age in a black funeral home in Baltimore \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSheri Booker was only fifteen years old when she started working at Wylie Funeral Home in West Baltimore. She had no idea that her summer job would become nine years of immersion in a hidden world. Reeling from the death of her beloved great aunt, she found comfort in the funeral home, and soon has the run of the place, from its sacred chapels to the terrifying embalming room.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith AIDS and gang violence threatening to wipe out a generation of black men, Wylie was never short on business. As families came together to bury one of their own, Booker was privy to their most intimate moments of grief and despair. But along with the sadness, Booker encountered moments of dark humor: brawls between mistresses and widows, and car crashes at McDonald’s with dead bodies in tow. While she never got over her terror of the embalming room, Booker learned to expect the unexpected and to never, ever cry.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis vibrant tour of a macabre world reveals an urban funeral culture where photo-screened memorial T-shirts often replace suits and ties and the dead are sent off with a joint or a fifth of cognac. \u003ci\u003eNine Years Under\u003c\/i\u003e offers readers an unbelievable glimpse into an industry in the backdrop of all our lives.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47055091433712,"sku":"9781592407125","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781592407125_p0.jpg?v=1763811261","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781592407125","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}