Funeral homes most often host, well, funerals. But later this month, Milwaukee’s Goodman-Bensman Whitefish Bay Funeral Home will focus on literature.
In the fourth of its series of six author events, the Jewish Book & Culture Fair, will use the funeral home as its venue for author Lynn Isenberg and her new book, “The Funeral Planner” (Red Dress Ink, $12.95) on Monday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m.
Dorene Paley and Molly Dubin, of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, came up with the idea after hearing Isenberg at the Jewish Book Council convention that they attended in preparation for the book fair, which is a program of the JCC in partnership with Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops.
It may be an apt reflection of the JCC’s general aim. “The JCC tries to develop programs that deal with all lifecycle events. We want to give people a different way to approach all events,” Dubin said.
“We’re having a lot of fun with this project,” agreed Paley.
She explained that Mel Pomerantz and Terry Kleinman of Goodman-Bensman, which is co-sponsoring the event, hope that using their facility as a venue will disarm people and help to raise the comfort level of being in a funeral home.
“[The venue] shouldn’t be intimidating and it shouldn’t be scary,” Dubin said. “It’s a welcoming place for planning a celebration of a life and it’s also a fine place for other events.”
And celebrating life is one of Isenberg’s main themes in “The Funeral Planner.”
In it, Madison Banks has an epiphany at her friend’s funeral that the life she has constructed has little meaning, and she “decides she needs to seize the day,” Dubin explained.
She leaves her conventional job and starts “Lights Out Enterprises,” a funeral planning business that focuses on celebrating the lives of the newly departed and helping the surviving family and friends appreciate the reality of their loved ones’ time on earth.
Isenberg, who has written several serious books on funeral-related subjects, has her protagonist help people intertwine the celebration of life with the grieving process.
“The book is humorous but kind of poignant. It speaks to the baby boomers who are used to controlling things and who are taking a new approach to death and funerals,” Dubin said.
“Different generations look at things differently and this program speaks across generational levels,” she said.
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