“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”

Farewell Fellowship’s Virtual Book Club meets tonight at 6 pm CT & our pick of the month is Caitlin Doughty’s “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons From the Crematory”.

The tagline on the front cover sums this book up as: “The very definition of morbidly funny” (Entertainment Weekly) and I couldn’t agree more. I was excited to read this work by the death care darling I’ve heard so much about @thegooddeath & I wasn’t disappointed. Doughty writes with clarity and honesty that we death workers are desperate to see more of in mainstream media.

I’d absolutely recommend this book to most of my fellow death care colleagues as well as any aspiring death workers. Truthfully, this book would be an excellent read for anyone considering cremation or ready to turn a discerning eye to the way we care for and bury our dead here in the US. I would add a disclaimer though: if you’ve recently cremated a loved one, in particular a baby, this book is extremely hard to read. That’s not to say we don’t ultimately need the detailed knowledge Doughty offers us but it may be a matter of discerning if now is the time this little book of dark humor, brave contemplation and frank death talk will serve you best.