Name: Maria's review of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty
Item: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory
Rating: 4
Author: Maria

Caitlin Doughty

"Morbid and illuminating" (Entertainment Weekly)—a young mortician goes behind the scenes of her curious profession. Armed with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre, Caitlin Doughty took a job at a crematory and turned morbid curiosity into her life’s work. She cared for bodies of every color, shape, and affliction, and became an intrepid explorer in the world of the dead. In this best-selling memoir, brimming with gallows humor and vivid characters, she marvels at the gruesome history of undertaking and relates her unique coming-of-age story with bold curiosity and mordant wit. By turns hilarious, dark, and uplifting, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes reveals how the fear of dying warps our society and "will make you reconsider how our culture treats the dead" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory

Morbid and illuminating (Entertainment Weekly) a young mortician goes behind the scenes of her curious profession."

And Other Lessons from the Crematory

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Amelia Hruby

For me, the good death includes being prepared to die, with my affairs in order, the good and bad messages delivered that need delivering. The good death means dying while I still have my mind sharp and aware; it also means dying without having to endure large amounts of suffering and pain. The good death means accepting death as inevitable, and not fighting it when the time comes. This is my good death, but as legendary psychotherapist Carl Jung said, It won't help to hear what I think about death." Your relationship to mortality is your own. 

Because of superstition, unquestioned even among those who should know better, this woman wasn't given the opportunity to sit with her mother until, as a friend of mine put it, her grieving "felt.. her chance for closure. A corpse doesn't need you to remember it. In fact, it doesn't need anything anymore-it's more than happy to lie there and rot away. It is you who needs the corpse. Looking at the body you understand the person is gone, no longer an active player in the game of life. Looking at the body you see yourself, and you know that you, too, will die. The visual is a call to self-awareness. It is the beginning of wisdom. done, somehow.

Mari

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Unforgettable . . . a hilarious, poignant and impassioned plea to revolutionise our attitudes to death' Gavin Francis, Guardian From her first day at Westwind Cremation & Burial, twenty-three-year-old Caitlin Doughty threw herself into her curious new profession. Coming face-to-face with the very thing we go to great lengths to avoid thinking about she started to wonder about the lives of those she cremated and the mourning families they left behind, and found herself confounded by people's erratic reactions to death. Exploring our death rituals - and those of other cultures - she pleads the case for healthier attitudes around death and dying. Full of bizarre encounters, gallows humour and vivid characters (both living and very dead), this illuminating account makes this otherwise terrifying subject inviting and fascinating.

And Other Lessons from the Crematorium

Nicole Hobson

Piet Terheyden

Maria

in spite of the fact that the general theme of this book might seem macabre, this is anything but. i found it to be genuine and full of compassion, and sometimes thought-provoking. i found myself tearing up a little during certain parts.

Laura Mauler

This book is like a lighter version of Mary Roach's "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers". It still has science, but that is toned down while the personal experiences of the author are turned up. Great book, highly recommend.

M. Marques

I got what I asked for. 

There are some things I think I wish it remained a mystery but now I guess there is no way to go back.

Andrew John Kinney

Caitlin Doughty manages to make the death industry funny, while exposing the ridiculous perambulations of dead bodies on their last voyages to either cremation or burial. Highly enjoyable read from a sympathetic narrative.

I really like the authors Ideas on making death less sterilised, agree with her a lot.

The blogger behind the popular Web series "Ask a Mortician" describes her experiences working at a crematory, including how she sometimes got ashes on her clothes and how she cared for bodies of all shapes and sizes.

Isabella

rly informative read about dealing with mortality and grief

Wynter

A highly informative read on current practices in the death industry that might help you form your own opinion about checking out of this world in a way you deem dignified. It also helps that the author is quirky, funny, and approachable. I wish her all the best in her quest to reconcile public with the idea of mortality and to create a better, more healthy relationship we have with death.

jinni

3.5 ✳︎ 
  “the silence of death, of the cemetery, was no punishment, but a reward for a life well lived.” 


i didn’t know i needed a deep conversation with a mortician regarding the culture of death in our current society but here i am.

more thoughts to come…

I thought this was really interesting. I liked hearing about Doughty's experience in the profession as it's one I don't know much about. I also enjoyed how she broached the topic of death in a more lighthearted manner. It was informative and entertaining. If you're looking for a quick read and you don't mind a bit of morbidness or slightly gross details, I recommend checking it out.

Heather Harrington

*no rating for non-fiction

I thought this was really interesting. I liked hearing about Doughty's experience in the profession as it's one I don't know much about. I also enjoyed how she broached the topic of death in a more lighthearted manner. It was informative and entertaining. If you're looking for a quick read and you don't mind a bit of morbidness or slightly gross details, I recommend checking it out.

Sampurna Saha 

loved this but also wished this was longer and went more in depth in some of the topics cause they were super interesting but felt like there wasn't enough.
will read the rest of her works.

Krystal Karim

wow—I’m deathly afraid of the unknown and the author gives such thoughtful consideration and gruesomely beautiful details of the “death industry”

CANT WAIT to check out the other two books!

Fun to read & I learned so much about death & dying

Belle

This book didn't grab me and make me want to read it incessantly, but it was written well. I'm glad the author took the chance to explore our relationship to death and corpses in a broader sense than simply sharing stories from her time working at a crematorium. She made me think about my own death, and the death of people I love, and how to handle those situations. In particular, she pointed out how wrong many of our ideas about corpses and how they're dealt with are (perpetuated by people in the funeral industry who don't understand science or the law), and how we can deal with dead bodies respectfully, and in a way that helps us grieve without denying that we too will become just a corpse someday.

Haley Murray

Moe S.

** spoiler alert **
           A really interesting read especially for a person who’s really into death and the death industry like me. 

I think the first half of the book is way richer than the rest but it’s still a really good book and it’s definitely recommended.

Mael

Sara

I can’t even describe how much I loved this

cora rolfes 

Fraser Simons

Genuinely compelling for me, as I knew nothing at all about the “death” industry. This is the perfect framing to talk about taboo subjects embroiled in a myriad of (western) societal repressed topics. It’s companionable and earnest. Fantastic memoir structure too. The specific topics brought up align very well with the time cut out from her life being talked about, which is actually fairly rare for a memoir, imo. They tend to have two different timelines, reminiscence bouncing along the path as the overall story marches forward. While this is indicative of how memory works, it is often jarring. 

The only knock against this is the humour. I am not a fan of it in 90% of everything I’ve ever read; it just does not land for me, and this is only augmented when a text is narrated. This could be a 5 star for me had it been actually funny or narrated by someone who can land jokes; either or, as I’m not sure which was the case for the humour not landing, for me. The authorial voice is just pretty heavy on it so it annoyed me often enough that it effected my overall enjoyment.

Tip: read the author's note in the beginning. It gives a lot of context and trigger warnings 

Caitlyn Baldwin

I love reading Caitlin Doughty. I love the way she tackles the institutions of the afterlife. I never put much thought into how much we have commodified death as a society. The narrative she presents both preserves the dignity of death while removing the veil of ambiguity.

✨Tyler ✨

well. i guess i know why i never gravitated towards her youtube videos. there were some interesting bits in this and i do think we as a society probably do need to talk about death in a more open way but she came off as holier-than-thou in certain parts and it rubbed me in the wrong way.

In some way or another, I've always felt drawn to death. As a kid, I was very afraid of my parents dying and I had a pathological fear of dead bodies thanks to my parents never taking me to the funerals of older relatives who passed away. This led me to grow up completely uncomfortable with my own mortality. It wasn't until my beloved aunt passed away when I was 23 that I came to face to face with death, warts and all. I was there when she was taken off life support, I saw her fingers begin to turn black before her death, I felt the energy change around her when she was declared dead, I began to see the body instead of her. I was there till the end and it made me realize that this is a part of life as much as birth. I was heartbroken but not afraid. When my mom passed away five years later, I was there while she was in hospice dying of cancer and I could see her body change and effectively, die. It was painful and a relief at once when she passed and I think about that when I look at her ashes on my mantle. Death is something we fear and detach ourselves from only to create more anxiety about the situation. Caitlin Doughty is a mortician who turns a critical and romantic eye onto the industry she works in and explores what the funeral industry is like, what death rituals are like in different cultures, what place ritual has in modern funerals. Part memoir, part anthropological journey, this is a wonderful book to learn about not only what goes on behind the scenes in the funeral world but also your own views on death and its various rituals. Definitely recommend.

Sabetha Danes

Death is permeant, scary and something better left unspoken of right? Well, no. 
Death should be talked about. It should be celebrated, and normalized. 

Caitlin's experience with death, from being deathly afraid of it, to advocating for a more open discussion of it is fascinating. All of these stories gave a glimpse into the death industry and give the reader a place to start their own research into what they want when they die. 

I highly recommend this book, and her YouTube channel. 

*Unlike Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And other Questions about Dead Bodies, this book is a bit more . . . to the point . . . she discusses infant death, and death in general in a much more frank setting. If you might be triggered by these topics check out the Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? instead.

Piet Terheyden &
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

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Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty