Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Caitlin Doughty

★ ★ ★ 1/2

Funny? No. Weird, oh you betcha! A smile here & there, but I didn't laugh.....

Caitlin born in HI, moved to San Francisco. In need of a job she applied and was accepted at a Crematory in Oakland, CA where she learned quite a bit about death, dying, cadavers, & human nature. This book is her story of the time she worked as a Crematory button pusher.

She also wrote about the condition of cadavers...... Did you know that Obese people's fat melts and pools in the floor crevices of the crematory and not only that but their bodies decompose faster (and smellier), because all sorts of bacteria & stuff attacks the fat? I didn't, I do now!

That even if you "stiff" (pun intended) the mortuary (in CA), they can not withhold family remains... they legally belong to you?

In CA, bones are now ground up into a fine powder and go w/ the ashes, so there are no chunks?

The chest is the first part to be cremated, because it is the thickest part of the body & the most difficult to reduce?

That the smallest cadavers & parts are cremated last?

That some Crematories once had peepholes so the family could view the cremation?

Ok..... not funny, but very interesting!

Caitlin Doughty went on to become a licensed mortician and the host and creator of the "Ask a Mortician" web series. She founded the death acceptance collective The Order of the Good Death and cofounded Death Salon. She currently lives in Los Angeles.