Volume 45, Number 14 · September 24, 1998
Memento Mori
By Al Alvarez
The American Way of Death Revisited
by Jessica Mitford
Knopf, 296 pp., $25.00
Grave Matters: A Lively History of Death Around the World
by Nigel Barley
Holt, 240 pp., $25.00
The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade
by Thomas Lynch
Norton, 202 pp., $23.00
Jessica Mitford was working on The American Way of Death Revisited, an updated version of the book that changed a great many Americans' attitude toward funerals, until a week before her death, two years ago. The original book had needed updating, and not just because three decades of inflation had added at least an extra zero to the prices. It had also inspired some changes: cremations, the simplest, cheapest type of funerals, rose from 3.75 percent of American dead to 21 percent, and the Federal Trade Commission introduced rules to protect the unwary funeral buyer.
Review, 5315 words
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