A to Z Review: “The Sin-Eater’s Tale,” by Brennan Wysong
Brennan Wysong’s “The Sin-Eater’s Tale” opens with the introduction of the sin-eater in the post-Civil War south. The sin-eater’s task is to go around to the funerals of the boys whose bodies have been returned home after their deaths and force people to confront the evils that their sons and brothers and friends had done. Once all the sins were enumerated and the sin-eater wrote them down, he would charge the family and eat the paper, thereby giving the family closure and providing absolution to the dead for the evils they committed during their lives.
Reading the story, the sin-eater is, in some ways reminiscent of the role Orson Scott Card provided Ender Wiggin in Speaker for the Dead, a way of summing up a person’s life, warts and all, although Wysong’s sin-eater also offers a means of expiation for the dead. Once the sin-eater is paid and the sins are swallowed , the family and friends can pretend the cruelties and crimes of the dead no longer exist.