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3.71k reviews for:
From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
Caitlin Doughty
4.32 AVERAGE
3.71k reviews for:
From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
Caitlin Doughty
4.32 AVERAGE
This was an appropriate Literati Finding Wonder book club selection for October, and it’s my favorite of Doughty’s three books. A “Mondo Cane” of today’s death rituals around the world, it immediately struck me as a more jovial “Dark Tourist” and then near the end I learned the proper term for this sort of roving macabre curiosity: thanotourism.
author's tone and prose was not my cup of tea
This book was written with such personality. I was really able to connect with the author. It was as though we were just having a conversation. She really opened my eyes to all the differences in death options around the world, and it was so intriguing and inspiring. I definitely had to think twice about my own choice postmortem.
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Good, fast, interesting read
Interesting to learn about various burial practices and provides food for thought on a rarely discussed topic.
I bought this book because I’m a huge fan of Doughty’s YouTube channel, Ask a Mortician. I love the way Doughty talks about death and caring for the dead as something integral to human experience, while also being sensitive to issues such as Westernization and imperialism when talking about cultures in contact. A lot of those things are carried over from her videos to this book, which I very much appreciated. Most of my criticism stems from personal taste and probably the desire for this book to be more than what it was. For the casual reader, though, I think it’s a great introduction to death culture around the world.
Things I Liked
1. Treatment of Culture: Doughty is very good about treating non-Western cultures (and non-white cultures) with respect. She never describes a death practice as odd or repulsive, and she is deliberate in highlighting how each practice acts as a culture’s way of connecting with people (whether it’s with the dead or with other members of the community). As a result, this book isn’t presenting death practices as spectacles to be gawked at, but as different ways of understanding and confronting death and mortality.
2. Social Commentary: Doughty’s strongest moments, in my opinion, are when she connects death and funeral practices to social issues. The chapter on North Carolina, for example, makes a profound statement on sexism and composting as a feminist act opposed to the masculine world of the Western funeral industry. I also liked her moving story about the death of her friend’s child (Mexico chapter) and connecting her experience to the way our culture eschews showing grief. I liked these moments because they showed how the way we treat death is an outgrowth of our cultural attitudes, not separate things or objectively “right” practices.
3. Illustrations: Instead of photographs, this book uses illustrations by Landis Blair. They are somewhat realistic, but also somewhat comic book-like. The effect was interesting: with photos, I would have felt like the book was more academic or voyeuristic, but the illustration removed such feelings and relegated funerary practices to the realm of imagination. The illustrations also helped with some potential tension a reader might feel when engaging with morbid subjects.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Organization Within Chapters: Many of the chapters of this book contain profound statements that I wish would have been set up sooner in order to give the chapter a more rounded structure. For example, the chapter on Mexico ends with a discussion of Frida Kahlo and dealing with the death of a child. The chapter opens, by contrast, with a discussion of the nationalistic tones of the Mexican Day of the Dead. While both are important, I would have liked each chapter to come full-circle to tie ideas together. The same can be said of other chapters (I’m thinking the one on North Carolina, which makes a wonderful statement on death and feminism at the end of the chapter, but I wish it would have been set up at the beginning as well).
2. Absence of Cultures: I realistically know that Doughty cannot fit every culture into her book and she is limited by her personal experiences and travels. I still cannot help but notice that African cultures were absent from her supposedly global scope. Including African (or cultures with African influence) in her book would have been a great way to confront issues of race and death, similar to how she did it in her chapter on Mexico.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in death, death culture, death practices, mortality, funeral practices, alternate burials and funerals, the corporatization of the funeral industry, memoirs, educational reading, and books about foreign cultures.
Things I Liked
1. Treatment of Culture: Doughty is very good about treating non-Western cultures (and non-white cultures) with respect. She never describes a death practice as odd or repulsive, and she is deliberate in highlighting how each practice acts as a culture’s way of connecting with people (whether it’s with the dead or with other members of the community). As a result, this book isn’t presenting death practices as spectacles to be gawked at, but as different ways of understanding and confronting death and mortality.
2. Social Commentary: Doughty’s strongest moments, in my opinion, are when she connects death and funeral practices to social issues. The chapter on North Carolina, for example, makes a profound statement on sexism and composting as a feminist act opposed to the masculine world of the Western funeral industry. I also liked her moving story about the death of her friend’s child (Mexico chapter) and connecting her experience to the way our culture eschews showing grief. I liked these moments because they showed how the way we treat death is an outgrowth of our cultural attitudes, not separate things or objectively “right” practices.
3. Illustrations: Instead of photographs, this book uses illustrations by Landis Blair. They are somewhat realistic, but also somewhat comic book-like. The effect was interesting: with photos, I would have felt like the book was more academic or voyeuristic, but the illustration removed such feelings and relegated funerary practices to the realm of imagination. The illustrations also helped with some potential tension a reader might feel when engaging with morbid subjects.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Organization Within Chapters: Many of the chapters of this book contain profound statements that I wish would have been set up sooner in order to give the chapter a more rounded structure. For example, the chapter on Mexico ends with a discussion of Frida Kahlo and dealing with the death of a child. The chapter opens, by contrast, with a discussion of the nationalistic tones of the Mexican Day of the Dead. While both are important, I would have liked each chapter to come full-circle to tie ideas together. The same can be said of other chapters (I’m thinking the one on North Carolina, which makes a wonderful statement on death and feminism at the end of the chapter, but I wish it would have been set up at the beginning as well).
2. Absence of Cultures: I realistically know that Doughty cannot fit every culture into her book and she is limited by her personal experiences and travels. I still cannot help but notice that African cultures were absent from her supposedly global scope. Including African (or cultures with African influence) in her book would have been a great way to confront issues of race and death, similar to how she did it in her chapter on Mexico.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in death, death culture, death practices, mortality, funeral practices, alternate burials and funerals, the corporatization of the funeral industry, memoirs, educational reading, and books about foreign cultures.
Nicely written and friendly, a smorgasbord of funereal practices from several cultures regarding the disposition of the corpse. Not heavy in prescription of methods to right our wrongs, rather a easy way to being to think about how you might deal with the remains of your loved ones.
I ADORE THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE A TERRIBLE RELATIONSHIP WITH DEATH AND ANYTHING SURROUNDING IT OR THINKING ABOUT IT AND THIS MADE ME FEEL VERY OKAY ABOUT IT!!!!!! YIPPEE.
1) great read, learned so much about unique death rituals around the world;
2) America’s funeral industry is absolutely garbage, yet another key component of life totally disfigured by capitalism;
3) learning about other cultures’ corpse-handling rituals made me feel better about death;
4) we absolutely need a death revolution in this country;
5) if I die in LA, take me to Undertaking LA, please!
2) America’s funeral industry is absolutely garbage, yet another key component of life totally disfigured by capitalism;
3) learning about other cultures’ corpse-handling rituals made me feel better about death;
4) we absolutely need a death revolution in this country;
5) if I die in LA, take me to Undertaking LA, please!
Audible Audiobook/Paperback
There are so many ways to pay tribute to the dead and Caitlyn explores many of them. From light-up buddhas to ñatitas of Bolivia, several ways of burial, cremation, etc. are detailed here. There’s also a pyre in Colorado and mummification due to the natural elements.
What’s good for one culture is horrific to another. If our Judeo-Christian overlords would get over themselves, maybe we could be offered more than 3 options in the state I live in. Natural burial is something that can help our planet through fewer cremations, no more metal boxes in the earth & letting nature take over. As you can see, I have an agenda.
There are so many ways to pay tribute to the dead and Caitlyn explores many of them. From light-up buddhas to ñatitas of Bolivia, several ways of burial, cremation, etc. are detailed here. There’s also a pyre in Colorado and mummification due to the natural elements.
What’s good for one culture is horrific to another. If our Judeo-Christian overlords would get over themselves, maybe we could be offered more than 3 options in the state I live in. Natural burial is something that can help our planet through fewer cremations, no more metal boxes in the earth & letting nature take over. As you can see, I have an agenda.