An astute, measured look at the modern death-care industry.
An apprentice undertaker on the ins and outs of the hidden trade.
In this report on the modern funeral industry, Jokinen updates The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford's classic 1963 treatise on the subject. The principal difference between then and now is the skyrocketing popularity of cremation among Baby Boomers, a trend that has had disastrous financial impact on traditional funeral homes. Caskets, plots and funeral services are sold at huge markups, and the relatively cheap option of cremation has hit funeral directors hard. Jokinen examines the strategies employed by the industry to generate new revenue streams, a process that calls into question the very purpose of “death care”—what functions did the old rituals serve, and how do the new ways of disposing of the dead address the spiritual and emotional needs of the living? The author explores these new options, including environmentally conscious “green” funerals, innovations in crematory urns, such as personalized sculptures and huggable teddy-bear receptacles, and chemically induced disintegration of corpses. The book abounds with sickening details about human putrefaction, embalming processes, the grim mechanics of cremation and sundry tricks of the trade—for example, the deceased's clothing is commonly cut down the back and tucked in around the body for a flattering fit. It's easy to feel outrage at the institutionalized venality that characterizes the funeral industry, as emotionally compromised survivors are cannily manipulated into spending thousands of dollars on what are, essentially, unnecessary accoutrements—a simple pine box can do the job as well as a luxurious mahogany casket—but Jokinen elicits a measure of respect for the thoughtful, dedicated funeral directors who place a premium on respect for the departed and the dignity of the final send-off.
An astute, measured look at the modern death-care industry.Pub Date: March 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-306-81891-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Da Capo
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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