Image
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory - Caitlin Doughty - 10/17/2014 - 9:00pm

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory

Community Room

Death. The universal equalizer. It doesn’t care how smart, attractive, wealthy, loved, or well-liked you are. To death, it doesn’t matter, he’ll take us all. From the moment of birth, we begin dying and no one knows when, where, or how. We’re all future corpses, and after cremation, we’re all four to seven pounds of greyish ash and bone.

 

In Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory, Caitlin Doughty reveals life’s terrifying secret—we all die. It’s not thought about or spoken of. We systematically deny it until it happens, and when it does, the industry shrouds the preparations, perpetuating more fear. By keeping it hidden, however, the funeral industry isn’t cheating us out of dollars, but death itself. There is no law or religious reason that requires embalming, yet it is a billion-dollar industry in North America.

 

Doughty received her death education from a wry boss, a gregarious embalmer, and a friendship with a magically calm body-transport driver who reminded her of Leslie Nielsen and believed San Francisco would be better fire bombed. In this peek behind-the-black-curtain, Doughty mirthfully exposes the chilling and gory details of what happens to your corpse after death in terms of decomposition and embalming.

Caitlin Doughty

Caitlin Doughty

Caitlin Doughty is a licensed mortician and funeral director in Los Angeles, where she lives with her Siamese cat. She’s the host and creator of the delightful “Ask a Mortician” Web Series and the collective Order of the Good Death. The Jezebel contributor’s been featured on National Public Radio, BBC Forbes, The Huffington Post, Vice, LA Times, Bust Magazine, and Salon. She was born and raised in Hawai’i.  This is her first book.

Recent Book
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes And Other Lessons from the Crematory