Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory

Caitlin Doughty

Sep 2014 · W. W. Norton & Company

About this ebook

"Morbid and illuminating" (Entertainment Weekly)—a young mortician goes behind the scenes of her curious profession.

Armed with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre, Caitlin Doughty took a job at a crematory and turned morbid curiosity into her life’s work. She cared for bodies of every color, shape, and affliction, and became an intrepid explorer in the world of the dead. In this best-selling memoir, brimming with gallows humor and vivid characters, she marvels at the gruesome history of undertaking and relates her unique coming-of-age story with bold curiosity and mordant wit. By turns hilarious, dark, and uplifting, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes reveals how the fear of dying warps our society and "will make you reconsider how our culture treats the dead" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Ratings and reviews

Good read 👍. I learned a lot about the death industry i didnt know about. Some chapters made me cry a bit. Idk what to say. It made me think how will society change in the future, what improvements could be made, and just a bunch of what ifs. Books arent my thing, but i enjoyed reading this.

It is a good read. The crematory stories are great. It gets preachy at the end. I wonder if the Ebola outbreak, followed by the panic in the States has had a negative effect on the washing your own dead and the natural burial movement?

I am an immigrant from rural Mexico, or what some like to call, "the real world". I found the approach to death within this book... honest, without being overly anything. Just pure reality and a great read for anyone with even a sliver of curiosity regarding the topic. Probably also a book for anyone experiencing career/school-related stress, or changes in life.

About the author

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.