All the Living and the Dead : : From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People who Have Made Death Their Life's Work

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / General / Campbell, Hayley, 363.75 Ca
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / General / Campbell, Hayley	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / General / Campbell, Hayley	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / General / Campbell, Hayley	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	363.75 Ca	4-week checkout	Due 04-16-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	363.75 Ca	4-week checkout	Due 05-14-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / General / Campbell, Hayley	4-week checkout	Due 05-10-2024

Includes index.
"A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people-morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners-who work in it and what led them there. We are surrounded by death. It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts. Yet from a young age, we are told that death is something to be feared. How are we supposed to know what we're so afraid of, when we are never given the chance to look? Fueled by a childhood fascination with death, journalist Hayley Campbell searches for answers in the people who make a living by working with the dead. Along the way, she encounters mass fatality investigators, embalmers, and a former executioner who is responsible for ending sixty-two lives. She meets gravediggers who have already dug their own graves, visits a cryonics facility in Michigan, goes for late-night Chinese with a homicide detective, and questions a man whose job it is to make crime scenes disappear. Through Campbell's incisive and candid interviews with these people who see death every day, she asks: Why would someone choose this kind of life? Does it change you as a person? And are we missing something vital by letting death remain hidden? A dazzling work of cultural criticism, All the Living and the Dead weaves together reportage with memoir, history, and philosophy, to offer readers a fascinating look into the psychology of Western death"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Table of Contents
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Very well written and thoughtful submitted by ajh on July 19, 2023, 2:35pm You may not want to read about death, but this book thoughtfully (and nearly exhaustively) looks at it through the lens of the many people who work in and around it. It's really very gentle and moving.