Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

When her doorbell rings, Katherine is struggling with the recent death of her friend, Annie, and the demise of a much beloved bra that's finally lost its zing. Worse things are in store, for she's about to become the organizer of a traveling funeral for five of Annie's dearest friends, who discover new truths in five different cities. Covering the cast of characters and diverse settings requires an accomplished narrator who can distinguish people and places with a lilt or a drop of the voice. Linda Stevens is fully up to the task. She also reads with briskness, turning a story that risks being saccharine and unbelievable into a satisfying listen. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

November 14, 2005
Radish's latest overwrought book (after Dancing Naked at the Edge of Dawn
) tracks five strangers– turned–soul mates over the course of the titular funeral, posthumously organized by their friend Annie, who died from ovarian cancer at age 56. A package arrives at Katherine Givens's front door and in it are the ashes of her free-spirited, altruistic childhood friend, along with instructions for a procession that will take Annie's closest friends on a cross country trip from Sonoma, Calif., to Manhattan, sprinkling her remains as they go. Just nine days later, Annie's former university colleague Jill, women's crisis savior Laura, cantankerous neighbor Rebecca and her hospice aide Marie join Katherine on the journey during which they learn their eccentric friend's deepest secrets and share many of their own. Most importantly, these unorthodox urnbearers understand the greatness Annie saw in them and attain the courage to act on it. Windswept melodrama marks Radish's prose (e.g. "these moments were the ones Marie needed to keep the tears and gashes in her own soul from washing her out to sea"), but that will not deter readers who relish the idea of women forming bonds when their mettle is tested and finding power and self-actualization in grief, sharing and love.