A little backstory before I get into my review for Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory: I actually read this book back in December. After moving three critically acclaimed and wildly anticipated novels into my DNF pile, I was desperate for a good read. So, I decided to go with the wild card and chose the book with “crematory” in the title.
In December. At Christmas.
After all those bestselling novels had failed me, I figured author Caitlin Doughty couldn’t possibly do any worse damage to my Goodreads challenge numbers. However, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes wasn’t exactly a randomly selected title. At least, not for me.
We know all I’m a little macabre, so when someone in my Facebook reading group suggested this title, I became quite excited. I have, at various points in my life, wondered about quitting my job to work in a funeral home. Not as a mortician — while I can read about how corpses are handled, I don’t have the viscera to do all that work myself — but as an admin or a greeter; someone to organize and plan, to comfort and console. I’m oddly comfortable around death, and I would like to help others navigate around that strange and difficult time.
I felt Doughty was a kindred spirit, so, as a Christmas present to myself, I said “Eff it!” to my stack of time-sensitive ARCs, defiantly picked up Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, and settled in next to my Christmas tree to read about death, funerals, and decomposition.
Before we go any further with this review, you should know two very important things:
1) I LOVED this book.
2) It is NOT for the squeamish among us.
For the sake of this review (and my readership, which is probably dwindling at this very moment), I won’t go into specifics about the aforementioned decomposition. But, believe me, this book gives you quite the education on human anatomy, biology, and physiology. Oh, science. A word of strong warning that echoes what Doughty tells you in her Author’s Note — do not read this book if you can’t handle very gross things. Some of the content is easily the stuff of nightmares.
Okay! For those of you who haven’t been scared away from this review, let’s get into why I loved Smoke Gets In Your Eyes so much.
The bulk of this memoir chronicles Doughty’s first year working in a funeral home as a crematory operator. Her stories come fast and furious, and you and Doughty meet all sorts of dead bodies (in various states of preservation, or, lack thereof) and learn about the funeral, embalming, and cremation industries. The author doesn’t mince words; your questions about what (physically) happens after we die are answered, sometimes to a fault. Part of me wishes I really hadn’t learned some of the things I did about port-mortem human bodies. Part of me (the larger part; don’t judge) really wishes this book had been published as “An Illustrated Guide.”
Doughty’s descriptions are honest and fascinating, clinical yet personal. Her simultaneous detachment from and emotional connections with the bodies she prepares for cremation is wonderfully absorbing, and, as a bonus, often hilarious. This is her job, after all, and she injects the same wry humor into her everyday work that we all do in order to get through our days.
To use one of my favorite cliches, Doughty puts the “fun” back in “funeral.”
Along with these work stories are her thoughts about death and dying, which are heavily influenced by careful study of death rituals from around the world and different time periods. Historians and anthropologists alike will love the shout-outs to all the different ways that people handle(d) their dead.
Additionally, Doughty supplies interesting and helpful info about the history and evolution of the funeral industry. She addresses the importance of being informed so you’re not swindled by corporate funeral parlors who try to “up-sell” you on things you don’t need in a time of crisis. Her Big Message is about finding alternative ways to embrace death, both emotionally and physically, so you’re able to approach it on a practical level, and the latter part of the book delves heavily into this.
Doughty is on a mission to take the scariness out of death, and I feel she accomplishes so much within Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. Her writing style is easy and accessible, witty and self-deprecating. And, most intriguingly, she is refreshingly honest about her work, about death, and about her personal life and what lead her to where she is today. I could go on and on about how awesome this book is — but, really, you should just read it for yourself.
I also related to many parts of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes on a personal level. Doughty lets us know early on that her fascination with mortality stems from witnessing a traumatic death as a child. That experience is what spurred her lifelong quest to not only understand death, but to conquer the fear and stigma around it.
After reading about five pages of her memoir, I felt that the author and I could be best friends. (Don’t worry, Cait. My deep-seated hatred of California will keep me from showing up at your doorstep to persuade you about our potential for friendship.) Part of this is due to her warm, candid writing style, which could suck anybody in, but the other part is that, as a fellow “functionally morbid” adult, I felt understood by Doughty in a way I never have before.
While I didn’t witness a “traumatic” death the way she did, my home was basically turned into a hospice during my formative childhood years. Needless to say, it left a mark. There are definitely some thoughts, tendencies, and experiences the author shares that I relate to 100%. A thousand percent. I even read pages aloud to my therapist, excitedly exclaiming, This is why I’m like this! This makes so much sense! Nothing like a little vindication to help you fall head-over-heels for a book.
While Smoke Gets In Your Eyes didn’t make me decide to finally quit my publishing career and turn up at my nearest funeral parlor wearing a “Ready to Work!” badge, it obviously had a profound impact on me. I feel this book is good for so many different types of readers. For those of you looking for some historical and anthropological death studies, this absolutely hits the mark. For those of you who are mildly curious about what happens to the body after death, this book will undoubtedly give you all (and probably way more than) you want to know.
And, for those of you who are like me and Doughty — for the ones who look at death with more fascination than fear, who greet morbid concepts with way more familiarity than most deem “normal” — perhaps this will help you answer the questions about yourself you’ve never known how to ask.
On a lighter note: shockingly, I am going to post a book-inspired recipe for Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. (I promise it won’t be weird.) So, stay tuned and check back in soon!
This sounds so interesting – adding to my TBR! As always, such a thoughtful and well-written review.
Thanks, Claire!! As long as you can handle the gross stuff 😊 this is a great, funny, and interesting read!!
I read “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by Mary Roach a few years ago and found it fascinating. Before reading that book I hadn’t thought much about the contributions that deceased humans make to science or how your body might be used if you donate it to science. “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” sounds like it would interest me in a similar way, so I’m going to add it to my TBR list.
Relatives of my cousins owned a funeral home and lived above it. Whenever we went to parties at the relatives’ home, the kids always went downstairs and “played” funeral (there were no actual “customers” present). It’s weird when I think of it now, but it was fun at the time.
Great review, by the way.
Kate
Kate, it’s so funny you mention STIFF because that’s how I came across SMOKE. Someone first recommended I read STIFF, but when I couldnt find it at my local library, she recommended SMOKE as an alternative. So I think you’ll like SMOKE if you liked STIFF. I still need to read that one! I find all this stuff fascinating. 😁 and I can definitely see how playing in a funeral home as a kid would be fun. It seems so taboo!! Also, the kids book SCARED STIFF was a favorite read when I was about 12. It takes place in a funeral home, haha.