Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

"Exposing a young child to the realities of love and death is far less dangerous than exposing them to the lie of the happy ending." 

Caitlin Doughty 

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Death is not something we often talk about, even though it is something that exists all around us. It is often skipped over, spoken of in awkward metaphors, and it is rare to encounter a body. Even the covers of magazines and beauty products mask its coming: "Look years younger!" "Reverse the aging process." Yet for something that is rarely spoken of, it is something that is always in the back of our minds. There are eight billion people on the planet, and every one of them will die.  In twenty years there will be as many people over the age of eighty-five as there are children under five. Given a long enough time frame the survival rate of everyone drops to zero.

Yet this is something we don't talk about. Caitlin Doughty examines this in her book, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, and comes to the conclusion that this is not a healthy thing. In this book she recounts her experiences working in a crematory and what she learned in mortuary school, and applies that knowledge to how we encounter death in the US. The book is fascinating. Doughty goes into detail describing how bodies decompose (not for the squeamish) and the processes of preparing the dead for their final rest (including many legal options and some illegal ones). So does all of this with a wonderful touch of humor. From witty stories from her time in the industry to well researched examinations of how death was thought upon in the past, the book comes together beautifully, forming a wonderful commentary on how the way we think about our dead offers insights to how we live our lives.

I loved this book. It was charming, funny, insightful, morbid, and wonderfully educational. In a society that glances over death, it was extremely refreshing to be told what actually happens to bodies after the animating force has left them. She offered wonderful examinations of the ceremonies surrounding death in other cultures and throughout history, as well as a scathing critique at the funeral industry in the US. It was brilliant.