“At almost any location in any major city on Earth, you are likely standing on thousands of bodies. These bodies represent a history that exists, often unknown, beneath our feet.”
Interested in my personal thoughts about From Here to Eternity? Check out my review.
Author- Caitlin Doughty
Title- From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
Publication date- October 9, 2018
Number of pages- 288; includes acknowledgement, notes, and index
Geographic setting- United States, Indonesia, Bolivia, Japan, Mexico
Time period- Present day, although the author references the past regularly when discussing traditions around death customs.
Subject headings- Death & Dying, Personal Memoirs, Cross-cultural Studies, Funeral Rites
Type- This book encompasses multiple types: history, social sciences, and travel narrative
Series note- This book is not part of a series
Book summary- Author Caitlin Doughty, well-known for her work to reform the American death industry, uses this book to examine death culture around the world. From open air pyres in Colorado, to sky deaths, Indonesian mummies, and just about everything in between, Doughty compares and contrasts how funeral traditions have shaped the way cultures think about death, dying, and the dead. For readers in the US, this book centers death, an uncommon thing for the society, making it OK to learn about and think about. Doughty’s serious tone is not at all depressing and her work gives the reader space to pause and consider what they would like their own ending to look like.
Reading elements-
Leisurely paced and reflective, this book won't overwhelm the reader with hard facts. Since this is also a travel story, there are light-hearted moments and mishaps that allow for breaks from the heavy subject matter.
While this book isn't highly narrative, there is a flow to the travel story and history of the content that keeps the book on the middle ground between a highly narrative and hard fact book.
The intent of the author is to both educate and offer space for reflection, especially for American readers, to consider a subject that is often considered taboo.
The book is highly focused on the funeral traditions of specific places, turning this subject matter into an intriguing story.
Each chapter contains illustrations to help the reader understand what the author saw and experienced in each place she traveled to. Given the heavy subject matter, these details helpthe reader to visualize, while not being as graphic as a photograph which might disrespect the dead.
Doughty’s conversational writing style will help this book appeal to a range of non-fiction fans. She weaves together travel adventures with facts, giving the book the feel of an engaging dinner conversation.
The book is informative and serious with light-hearted moments mixed in, lending the book a neutral tone that allows the reader to learn and reflect without being overwhelmed or feeling like they are having an opinion thrust upon them..
Similar works-
All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers and Executioners, An Exploration of People Who Have Made Death Their Life’s Work by Hayley Campbell- Campbell considers how, from the time we are very young, death is all around us and yet always something to be feared. Wanting to confront this taboo topic, she interviews people working in the death industry about their experiences and recounts those stories here. From these interviews Campbell considers what it’s like to work with something we’re taught to fear and reexamines society’s relationship with the end of life.
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons From the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty- Readers who enjoyed Doughty’s writing style in From Here to Eternity, are likely to be interested in this earlier work which recounts details from her time working in a crematory. Doughty uses a similar prose structure, mixing fact with memoir, providing another book where the reader can learn and reflect on what happens to us all in the end.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach- Beloved for her ability to make the most taboo topics relatable, in Stiff Mary Roach explores what happens to bodies after death. Taking a different approach from Doughty, Roach explores post-death forensics and all the ways bodies are used to educate, from studying decomposition to space exploration, she demonstrates bodies have a lot to offer to the living, even after what makes us human is gone.
Reading the whole collection-
Archival Quality by Ivy Noelle Weir (author) & Steenz (artist)- in this graphic novel, a former librarian struggling with depression takes a job as a night archivist at a local medical museum. Through a series of haunting events, the book explores what happened to the patients whose remains are kept in the museum as well as the importance of how our bodies are treated after they’re gone.
The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu- This fantasy novel follows Ropa, a ghost talker, as she passes messages from the dead to the living and investigates an evil bewitching of children in Edinburgh.
Spiritfarer by Thunder Lotus Games- Available on multiple gaming platforms, in Spiritfarer players befriend characters, help them through their lives, and then transport their souls to safety after they die.