Books › Smoke gets in your eyes
Smoke gets in your eyes
371 pages
A morbidly funny, unflinchingly honest peek behind the curtain of the modern death industry that somehow leaves you feeling more alive.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like grabbing drinks with a brilliant, slightly goth friend who has the most fascinating, grotesque, and profound stories to share. It balances the visceral, messy reality of human decomposition with a surprisingly tender philosophy about our shared mortality. The prose is snappy, conversational, and deeply educational, making a heavy, culturally taboo subject feel accessible and delightfully macabre. You will wince at the unflinching descriptions of cremation machines and bodily fluids, but you will also find yourself laughing out loud at the sheer absurdity of the modern funeral industry. It is a brisk, eye-opening experience perfect for the morbidly curious who want to look their own mortality in the eye and give it a friendly, knowing wink.
- Mood
- macabre
- contemplative
- surprisingly warm
- visceral
- Tone
- wry
- candid
- irreverent
- philosophical
- morbidly humorous
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- confronting mortality · demystifying the taboo · the modern death industry · finding beauty in the grotesque · existential acceptance
- The writing
- Conversational, witty, and unflinchingly descriptive, seamlessly weaving historical trivia with vivid, sometimes stomach-churning personal anecdotes.
- The arc
- Moves from wide-eyed morbid curiosity through visceral shock, ultimately arriving at a profound, peaceful acceptance of human mortality.
- Who it's for
- Morbidly curious souls who appreciate dark humor, medical memoirs, and confronting existential dread with a wry smile.
Content notes
- graphic descriptions of dead bodies
- cremation and decomposition
- grief and mourning
- bodily fluids
- infant death
About the book
The blogger behind the popular Web series Ask a Mortician describes her experiences working at a crematory, including how she sometimes got ashes on her clothes and how she cared for bodies of all shapes and sizes.
Description from Open Library.
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