Overview

Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty embarks on a global expedition to discover how other cultures care for the dead. From Zoroastrian sky burials to wish-granting Bolivian skulls, she investigates the world’s funerary customs and expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with dignity. Her account questions the rituals of the American funeral industry—especially chemical embalming—and suggests that the most effective traditions are those that allow mourners to personally attend to the body of the deceased. Exquisitely illustrated by artist Landis Blair, From Here to Eternity is an adventure into the morbid unknown, a fascinating tour through the unique ways people everywhere confront mortality.

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9780393356281

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Reviews

In her jocular but reverential tone... Doughty doesn't offer a simple morbid travelogue; instead, she digs into diverse death experiences with deep veneration and examines ties to socioeconomic, status, female identity, and religion. -- Booklist A thought-provoking book about the complicated, fascinating world of funerary practices. Unless you and your friends are immortal, this book pertains to you. -- A. J. Jacobs She is the ideal guide on this journey, curious and respectful...Recommended for fans of the author and those with an interest in anthropology and ritual. -- Library Journal [Doughty's] fascinating tour of rituals contains liturgies that readers will surely observe as rare, macabre, unbelievable, ancient, and precious-sometimes simultaneously. -- Kirkus Caitlin Doughty is razor sharp, and writes about death with exceptional clarity and style. From Here to Eternity manages to be both an extremely funny travelogue and a deeply moving book about what death means to us all. -- Dylan Thuras, co-founder of Atlas Obscura From Here To Eternity is fascinating, thought-provoking and - who would have guessed? - sometimes funny. Put it on your bucket list. -- The Mail This humane book gently provokes you to wonder: what exactly is your ideal funeral? -- The Times This slim volume, full of captivating, enlightening, and humorous tidbits, is a-dare I say-uplifting exploration of what people the world over do to withstand loss and the bite of impermanence. This is death as viewed by a mortician: profound, unavoidable, natural, and a bit funny. -- KQED Doughty finds the humanity in others cultures' relationship with death that seems to be lacking in ours. -- Justin Caffier - Vice [T]he macabre travelogue is a thoughtful reflection and a smart critique of the American funeral industry, with plenty of gallows humor thrown in. -- Smithsonian (The Ten Best Travel Books of 2017) Doughty writes bluntly about open-air cremations, natural burials and body composting, bringing a little more clarity and a little less mystery to the question: 'What happens to us after we die?' -- NPR (Our Guide to 2017's Great Reads) Doughty chronicles [death] practices with tenderheartedness, a technician's fascination, and an unsentimental respect for grief. -- Jill Lepore - The New Yorker Doughty is a relentlessly curious and chipper tour guide to the underworld, and the weirder things get, the happier she seems. ... [H]er dispatches from the dark side [are] doing us all a kindness-offering a picture of what we're in for, even if we'd rather not know. -- Libby Copeland - New York Times Book Review

Doughty finds the humanity in others cultures' relationship with death that seems to be lacking in ours. -- Vice It sounds a bit like Eat, Pray, Die, but her project is much larger than its premise first implies. She is searching not for personal spiritual enlightenment or the morbid titillation of thanatourism, but for practical, radical alternatives to our corporatized death industry. Her travels illuminate a host of compelling possibilities for better funerals and a less fraught relationship with our dead. -- The New Republic From Here To Eternity is fascinating, thought-provoking and - who would have guessed? - sometimes funny. Put it on your bucket list. -- The Mail [T]he macabre travelogue is a thoughtful reflection and a smart critique of the American funeral industry, with plenty of gallows humor thrown in. -- Smithsonian Doughty writes bluntly about open-air cremations, natural burials and body composting, bringing a little more clarity and a little less mystery to the question: 'What happens to us after we die?' -- NPR Caitlin Doughty is razor sharp, and writes about death with exceptional clarity and style. From Here to Eternity manages to be both an extremely funny travelogue and a deeply moving book about what death means to us all. -- Dylan Thuras, co-founder of Atlas Obscura Thought-provoking.... Unless you and your friends are immortal, this book pertains to you. -- A. J. Jacobs Doughty chronicles [death] practices with tenderheartedness, a technician's fascination, and an unsentimental respect for grief. -- Jill Lepore - The New Yorker Illuminating.... From Here to Eternity humanizes rituals that might otherwise seem unfathomable. -- Paste Doughty is a relentlessly curious and chipper tour guide to the underworld, and the weirder things get, the happier she seems.... Her dispatches from the dark side [are] doing us all a kindness-offering a picture of what we're in for, even if we'd rather not know. -- New York Times Book Review

Author Information

Caitlin Doughty is a mortician and the New York Times best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, From Here to Eternity, and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? She is the creator of the web series Ask a Mortician, and the founder of The Order of the Good Death. She lives in Los Angeles, California, where she owns a funeral home. Landis Blair illustrated the prize-winning graphic novel The Hunting Accident and the New York Times bestseller From Here to Eternity, and has published illustrations in the New York Times, Chicago magazine, and Medium. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

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