Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory

This was a cool book that told the authors story of what it was like to work in a crematory. I could have done without some of the tangential info on Caitlins time living in a neighborhood where there were homeless people and how she started to have feelings with her friend, but everything else in this book was really cool to learn about.

Apparently, it is exceedingly difficult to get into the funeral home industry because it is a family practice that is often passed down, and you find yourself in the existential career cycle of "can't get a job because I need more experience but this job is the only way I can get more experience." This showed Caitlin's journey of breaking into the crematory business and the background of her fascination with the dead, and how she realized her hated for embalming. The people Caitlin work with are also funny and enjoyable to read about.

I would recommend this to anyone curious about cremation and processing the dead, but caution anyone that might be grossed out by bodily fluids.

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lilawsahar's review

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dark funny informative lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

I learned so much about the business of dying. I’ll need to create a death plan so my family knows not to use embalming fluids. I wanna decompose the most environment friendly way possible.

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reb_knits's review against another edition

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dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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nataliebootlah's review

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dark informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

A stark memoir on what happens after death, straight from a mortician.

The majority of people don’t really talk about what happens to their bodies after they die. It’s a bit taboo, isn’t it? That’s exactly Caitlin Doughty’s point.

In this lively exploration of death, Doughty shares pointblank what happens in the crematories of the western world: how a body gets picked up, is stored in a fridge, cleaned, fluids removed, embalmed and perfected for presentation, then cremated. With dark humor, this book challenges our cultural aversion to morality and begs us to invite death into our door. By examining death rituals from around the world, both past and present, Doughty’s goal is to desensitize the average human from death. Thus, encouraging people to have more open and honest conversations about death and the wishes people and their loved ones have for after death.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes is an unflinchingly, honest read. It invites readers to embrace the inevitability of death, positivity change their relationship with mortality, and challenge the current widespread views of it. It definitely did so for me. But be aware, it is not for the faint of heart.

Shout out to Walker for recommending this and letting me hold onto it for literal years. The recommendation sure did stand the test of time. Cheers who friends who read together (albeit at different times) and cheers to a good death!

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nadiajohnsonbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny informative medium-paced

4.0

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