The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries
Marilyn Johnson was enthralled by the remarkable lives that were marching out of this world—so she sought out the best obits in the English language and the people who spent their lives writing about the dead. She surveyed the darkest corners of Internet chat rooms, and made a pilgrimage to...
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Marilyn Johnson was enthralled by the remarkable lives that were marching out of this world—so she sought out the best obits in the English language and the people who spent their lives writing about the dead. She surveyed the darkest corners of Internet chat rooms, and made a pilgrimage to London to savor the most caustic and literate obits of all. Now she leads us on a compelling journey into the cult and culture behind the obituary page and the unusual lives we don't quite appreciate until they're gone.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780060758769 (0060758767)
Publish date: January 30th 2007
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Pages no: 272
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Humor,
Biography,
Writing,
Essays,
History,
Language,
Book Club,
Journalism,
Sociology,
Death
Opening: "People have been slipping out of this world in occupational clusters, I've noticed, for years. Four journalists passed their deadline one day, and their obits filled a whole corner of the paper."So, I actually read--shock! amazement!--a non-fiction book. It had been languishing on my TBR l...
I guess it is true, you really do learn something new everyday. I had no idea that there were people specifically paid to write obituary's for newspapers or that they had their very own convention. A fascinating and interesting read for sure.
I haven't picked up the habit, but I certainly understand the appeal of reading obituaries now.
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