Kris Radish Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral

Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

Kris Radish

Bantam, Feb 2006, $11.00

ISBN: 0553382640

When fifty six year old Annie Freeman dies from ovarian cancer she sends her ashes inside her red shoes via UPS to her friend Katherine Givens. Annie's instructions are to lead around the country funeral procession of her closest pals starting at Sonoma, California to Albuquerque, the Keys, Manhattan, Lake Superior and an island near Seattle, at each site her best friends are to sprinkle her remains. Katherine would do almost anything for the woman who understood her better than anyone.

After a reluctant start and a bottle of courage labeled as Shiraz, Katherine begins to put together the odyssey of the last request of the San Francisco State University English professor. Under two weeks later, Katherine, joined by Annie's university colleague Jill Matchney, women's crisis worker Laura Westma, neighbor Rebecca Carlson and hospice aide Marie Kondrinsky, trek along Annie's given route. The women bond sharing secrets of their late zany pal, who not only lived life to the fullest and encouraged others to do likewise, but she was also there to help the downtrodden do so.

Using flashbacks to when Annie first met each of her pall bearers, readers obtain an intriguing character study inside a sisterhood bonding. The storyline reflects mostly on Annie, but also provides insight into the greatness that she saw and supported in her cronies. Though the tale at times turns too melodramatically angst-laden, contemporary fiction readers will want to journey around the country tossing the ashes of a fine person.