Caitlin Doughty

I technically started this book in October 2021, but I put it down after reading a few chapters and didn't pick it up again until 5 months later.

From Here to Eternity is the third book that I have read by Caitlin Doughty. This book focuses on death and grieving practices from around the world, whereas Smoke in Your Eyes deals with the author's experiences working in a crematory, and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs has questions and answers about dead bodies.

I really like the information that the author provides in her books. She traveled around the world as a part of her research and witnessed some truly interesting things. I appreciate the author's work in demystifying death practices and her efforts towards changing the modern death industry into being more personal and family involved, so that people have more options with how to grieve their lost loved ones and more choices about how their own bodies would be handled after death.

There were two things that I didn't like in this book. First, I thought it was in poor taste to describe the sentiments of grieving people as platitudes (i.e., women that suffered miscarriages talking about how their babies were now angels in heaven.) To some that idea wouldn't mean anything, but to others it is their way of coping with tragedy. The second thing that I didn't like was the insert of politics, even though it was very minimal. Apparently I don't like my books about death customs to be tainted by unrelated politics.… (mehr)