Sweet sorrow : a beginner's guide to death / Mark Wakely.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wakely, Mark, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Death.

Death in literature.

Death in popular culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (114 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Carlton, Victoria, Australia : Melbourne University Press, 2008.

Summary:

This remarkable book-at times heart-breaking, at times humorous-is dazzling for its profound honesty. Like most of us, Mark Wakely had always put death in the too-hard basket. Around death he was painfully awkward, strangely self-conscious: death-shy. He was curiously distanced from his own parents' deaths. Thirty years later, he went on a journey to confront one of the most intensely personal yet universal experiences: our own mortality. With Mark as our guide, we are introduced to morticians and embalmers, rabbis and doctors, coffin makers and gravediggers. He reveals the fashions and the fads, the rituals and the deep emotion in a heartfelt and whimsical investigation into this timeless subject. All you need to pack for the trip is a curiosity about life.

Contents:

Intro

Title

Contents

Dedication

Don't tell me how it ends Counting backwards

A good death The last flicker

I'm sorry for your troubles

I see dead people

The final cut The new pyjamas

You die, we do the rest

All dressed up and nowhere to go

Carry me out in a box Words for my father

We are gathered here today

Swan song

No baby's breath, by request

Death goes digital Burying Hamish

Earth to earth

A little house for the dead

Ashes to ashes

Dust to dust

Moving Mum and Dad The wake

'I am sad in my heart'

This is how it ends

Notes

Acknowledgements

Copyright.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780522858952

0522858953

OCLC:

1089016250