Fascinating book. Consider the underlying premise: everything you have ever heard or thought about death comes to you as ideas that are categorically based on ZERO first-hand experience. Everything is speculative — cultural mythology. Once you wrap your head around the idea that every idea you have in your head about the prospect of your death is ungrounded, unfalsifiable make-believe (and mostly negative), Keleman wants to give you license to start over, to reinvent your mythology about what it means to die and the meaning you ascribe to the journey.

Accessible read. But still very much a product of its time — a male psychotherapist writing in the mid-1970s. Keleman extrapolates almost all of his points from his personal experiences. And the book has plenty of quirks, such as Keleman's recurring insistence on the similarity of death and orgasm. But several of the ideas in here struck me as original concepts that I have not come across before. The title makes some important and constructive contributions to a topic that is obviously relevant to all of us.

Compassionate, realistic, reassuring and wise, Keleman's original work has the added bonus of being non-denominational. Deserves more readers. ( )