Two years ago I read and truly enjoyed Caitlin Doughty’s debut book, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, which chronicled her journey from someone curious about the business of death into an advocate for seeking out what she terms “the good death” and changing the funerary business as it is now in the United States. Besides being an interesting story about her life, the book is basically a treatise about making death a part of your life, of staring down your fears and accepting that death […]
What We Can Learn About Death From Others
Best for: Anyone interested in death and mourning rituals from around the world. In a nutshell: Author and funeral home owner Caitlin Doughty follows up her bestseller “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” with a look at different funeral and mourning rituals in an attempt to get those in some parts of the West who may be in denial about death to think about it differently. Line that sticks with me: I’m going to cheat here and offer two: 1. “Cailin, can you smile a little, […]
Just the Right Combination of Humor, Insight, and Death.
Ah, here we go. I tore through this book over two mornings ingesting every detail Ms. Doughty had to offer about her life and what her time working in crematories and mortuaries has taught her. Perhaps it was a kinship I felt with a similar academic mind craving information. Perhaps it was my previously mentioned interest in forensics, death, and disaster. But whatever it was, this book simply worked for me in a way that my previous read did not. Perhaps the best way to […]
Tales from the mortuary
The library recommended Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory after I finished Brain on Fire, but it really reminded me more of Judy Melinek’s wonderful Working Stiff. Three fascinating books written by three talented women. Caitlin Doughty’s gets a little preachy towards the end, as she dives into her own personal philosophies on death and dying, but the information leading up to her own discoveries is interesting and delivered wonderfully. “Accepting death doesn’t mean you won’t be devastated when someone you love dies. […]