Obitchuary
The Big Hot Book of Death
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3.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Based on the popular podcast, Obitchuary: The Big Hot Book of Death is a smart, funny look at the American culture of death and how we’re remembered.
It’s safe to say everyone thinks about death—whether they want to or not. But have you ever wondered about what sort of keepsakes you can make with your remains, or given any thought to the most scandalous deathbed confessions throughout history? Well Madison Reyes and Spencer Henry have, and they've spent countless hours scouring the darkest corners of the internet, digging through newspaper archives, devouring documents, and picking the brains of death industry experts to bring you Obitchuary, a darkly funny and deeply poignant exploration of all things death.
With chapters like “Coffin Confessions,” “Executions to Die For,” “The Last Word,” and “If These Dolls Could Speak,” Madison and Spencer guide us through surprisingly colorful history, traditions, and contemporary practices. They also demystify taboo topics with incredible and hilarious details, including FUNerals, as they call them, cremations and themed funerals, famous body snatchers, and so much more.
Shocking, macabre, hilarious, and moving, Obitchuary digs deep into the physical aspects of death while also carefully exploring what death says about our humanity and the ways we choose to remember those we've lost. So go ahead, crack open the book—we know you're dying to read it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Henry and Reyes, who share outlandish real-life death notices on their Obitchuary podcast, serve up macabre trivia in this entertaining mélange. A rundown of famous last words notes that Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman reportedly said, "This dying is boring," before succumbing to cancer. Elsewhere, a survey of death row inmates' last meals notes that in 2011, a convicted murderer requested steaks, fajitas, pizza, cheeseburgers, an omelet, and ice cream only to refuse to eat any of it, reporting that he wasn't hungry. The authors compile colorful obituaries originally published in news outlets commemorating, among others, the chihuahua featured in late 1990s Taco Bell ads and a father reviled for his "complete commitment to drinking, drugs, womanizing" ("He leaves behind 2 relieved children," reads the scathing obit they wrote for him). Details about historical death rituals fascinate, as when Henry and Reyes explain how, in 18th-century England and Wales, "sin-eaters" were called on to "absorb" the sins of the dying so they could more easily reach the afterlife. Unfortunately, the authors' irreverent tone sometimes clashes with the serious subject matter (it's hard to find amusement in, for instance, a blistering obituary written by adult children who accuse their dead mother of neglect and abuse). The occasional lapse into glibness aside, this will appeal to readers with a dark sense of humor. Illus.
