When I first saw someone post about ‘Smoke Gets in your Eyes’ on Instagram my heart skipped a beat and I was caught by a sense of dread. This book looked like it had some of the answers, truths about the unknowable mystery of death. It immediately caught my attention and even though I feared reading it, I knew I badly wanted to. I’m happy to report back to you that I don’t regret having read this book at all. In fact, I’d vehemently recommend it to every person who gave the notion of death more than a passing thought.
Doughty makes several arguments against the glamorisation of death and how in present times, death is something that’s shrouded from the eyes of society – made invisible. In the course of her book, she also highlights some of the loopholes in the workings of the American funeral industry. In fact, by writing this sort of book and openly exposing some of the well kept secrets of cremation and burial, Doughty attempts to show people the real deal so we can accept death wholeheartedly and understand it better.
This book does contain some in-depth gruesome descriptions about the body in stages of decay. But to call that graphic content would contradict the purpose of her book. Caitlin aims to delineate us from the idea of death by telling us about all that it entails. Since most people would rather prefer to go on living without thinking about their end, death is inevitably made invisible in our cultures. In her book, Doughty highlights the merits of confronting your own mortality and developing a personal relationship with it.
I really enjoyed the dark humour she weaves into each chapter of this book. It makes the heavy subject of death a whole lot more palatable. I surprised myself by finishing this book when I really thought I wouldn’t make it especially at the halfway mark. That’s when she was getting into the details of the body’s decomposition. I love how this book made me think about what happens to our bodies post death. Like it REALLY made me think about it. Somebody has just got to do the work and I couldn’t help but wonder if we had enough undertakers in our society to do the needful after we meet our end. The unseen workers of the death industry who work behind the scenes and still get discriminated for their choice of profession. A very informative and engaging read that’s well substantiated by facts. Doughty talks about everything from the history of death in Medieval literature to capitalism’s ideas of death. This book is perfect for those curious souls who desire to educate themselves about death. I only felt some places that the voice of the narrator was not consistent in that it wavered in her opinions about races and her descriptions of bodies from other cultures which came across as mildly condescending. I was also hoping that the book would approach the question of death from a more philosophical stand point and talk about how Doughty came to terms with making peace the idea. However, there was only one paragraph dedicated to this and I was a tad disappointed.
Does this book have all the answers? No, it is merely one woman discussing her venture into the American funeral industry, what made her choose such an unconventional career path and what she learned from being a mortician during the best years of her youth. In ‘Smoke gets in your Eyes’ Doughty gets candid about her journey obtaining closure over the very practical matter of death. This book offers you a lot to think about but it’s worth your time and afterthought. To an extent it will calm you down and give you a realistic picture about what’s on the cards.
If anything, you’ll likely come out of this book with a new perspective on life and take a leaf or two from Doughty’s own notebook.
Verdict: 4/5 stars
Bookish Bulletin 