Awesome and funny book! Well written, gives a great look inside a funeral home, the crematorium, and grief. I'd like my book to be written this way. ( )

This was a really interesting, often funny look at the modern North American funeral industry from someone who didn't grow up around the business. Jokinen has a raw, dry humour that works well with the subject and I found myself laughing more than once, which really made this book all the more enjoyable. I also learned a lot about the ins and outs of the business side of death and it made me think about what I would want for my own (hopefully not in the near future) funeral and burial.
While the writer does visit the west coast of the US and looks at some of the cemeteries there, the majority of the book takes place in Canada so some of the terms and the culture varies from what I'm familiar with. If you're looking for an in-detail look at the American funeral industry, this isn't for you, though I'd recommend you read it anyway. This book is definitely for anyone even remotely interested in the trade of death and the dying. ( )

What an interesting book! Starts out laugh-out-loud funny in the vein of offbeat novelists like Bill Bryson or Carl Hiassen, then transforms into an in-depth look at the funeral industry and the salesmen who work in it and how they ply their trade, then finishes with metaphysical musings on alternative ways to look at death. I think the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the book should be required reading for everyone (everyone who plans on dying someday), and the last part of the book is well worth the effort also. This is not something most people will be able to read while snacking though. While I didn't feel there were gruesome scenes, there are some matter-of-fact descriptions of the embalming and cremation processes. Since Jokinen says from the outset that he's doing a sort of internship in the funeral industry, the storyline is the various situations he finds himself in. As a result of this overall theme, the writing can seem disjointed at times. I don't have a burning desire to go out and read the similar books Goodreads recommends based on this book, but perhaps a single book on this topic is enough. ( )

It was a very interesting read, almost an updated version of "The American Way of Death".

One learns about the ins & outs of the funeral/mortuary/crematorium trade and the very many options one has when dealing with the death & remains of a family member.

Towards the last chapters the author writes about Grandview Cemetery in Glendale and the nightmare it became for those previously interred and dug-up, those whose ashes were dumped inside a closet, the lack of perpetual-care upkeep, the closure, & the lawsuit.... I am very familiar w/ all that as a friend buried her son there & was unable to visit him (except by climbing over a wall), but later when reopened also buried her husband there. ( )

What happens behind the scenes when someone dies until they “appear” at the funeral? The author looks at this, in addition to the business of being an undertaker, in all the historical changes – from burial to cremation… and still to come, green burials. He works with a family funeral home in Winnipeg where he learns all the different aspects of the business. He also heads to California, where he learns more about green burials (at the time of writing – this was published in 2010 – in Canada, the only place you could have a green burial was in Guelph, Ontario, and somewhere in BC was building someplace for it), then to Las Vegas for an undertaker trade show – see all the new and best in funerial apparel!!

I found this really interesting. Of course, there was a bit of humour thrown in here and there. In such a business, I think there needs to be! ( )