The American Way of Death Revisited

Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading for All of Us!
Review: Having lived half my life in the US and half in the UK, I was aware of fundamental differences in practices surrounding death and funeral rituals. Mitford's book provides a useful historical context with a biting criticism of the funeral industry's emotional and financial exploitation of the American public. It's baffling that such a consumer-wise nation could have such a huge blind spot when it comes to the one service which we will ALL use at some time. Depressingly, the mega funeral corporations are making their moves into the British and other world wide funeral markets -- with seemingly little opposition. In any case, I just hope I don't expire during my next visit to the US!

"The American Way of Death Revisited" provides a wealth of information, presented in a tactful and witty manner, to prepare anyone for "battle" with the funeral industry in the event of a loved one's death. It is clear and thorough without being ghoulish or flippant.

Read it now before you need it!

Rating:
Summary: How can death be sooo funny?
Review: Leave it to Jessica Mitford, who died in 1996, to make the subject of death and the American funeral industry so hilarious. First published to huge acclaim in 1963, The American Way of Death was revised and updated by Mitford, who nearly finished it by the time she died. Her lawyer husband, Robert Treuhaft, completed it with the help of some research assistants. Even a quick and cursory read of this book will make you take out a membership in the Neptune Society as a preemptive strike against high-pressure tactics of funeral home directors to get people (caught as their weakest as they are grieving over someone's death) to spend, spend, spend "to honor the memory of your dearly departed."
Mitford was known as the Original Muckraker for her habit of always speaking the truth, calling a spade a spade, and for probing into the cozy relationship between politicians, morticians, monopolistic ownership policies, the FTC, and federal lobbyists.
Interesting, updated, still drop dead (pun intended) funny, endlessly informative, witty and well-written with refreshing bluntness, The American Way of Death once again deserves to be read by everyone. And there's a terrific and informative appendix at the end.

Rating:
Summary: nothing but anti-business propaganda
Review: While Mitford claims that funeral directors prey on and profit from the grief of survivors, she, like most so-called muckrakers, preyed on and profited from the fears of ignorant consumers who would believe anything in print. She was an anti-business communist and proud of it. I have no issue with that. I have issue, however, with the fact that she employed her own political and economic beliefs in the service of scandalizing and vilifying an entire industry, which by and large is populated with good, hard-working individuals who provide a service that very few would be willing to provide. Her anti-business rhetoric (in this "revisited" version as well as in the original) works only because death itself is a sensitive subject. So, naturally, to make a living providing a funeral service is considered taking advantage of greiving people. Interesting. Do your local grocers -- let alone the supermarkets that are owned by large multinational corporations -- take advantage of you when they make their living from your basic need to eat? Aren't they exploiting the needs of those who would otherwise starve? See this for what it is: Communist, anti-business rhetoric built into a muckraking style of journalism that can only be seen as the predecessor of our ridiculous nightly news and their scare tactics: "Next on your local news . . . Ten things in your kitchen that can kill you!" If you have to read this flippant, unfunny, fairly scatterbrained book, do so with the same skepticism with which it was supposedly written.