Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly:
"In this surprising, occasionally sobering but often lighthearted travelogue designed to accompany a PBS series, Palmer, a broadcaster, playwright and filmmaker, examines death images across the world, interviewing people or just poking around and examining horror books, cartoons and other entertainments. He notes the tranquil names often given to cemeteries, like the ubiquitous Pleasant Hill or Taiwan's Happy Peace Garden. In lively anecdotes, Palmer reports on the attitudes towards death declared by a Ghanaian witch doctor, a Buddhist priest, an AIDS hospice patient, the head of a cryonics foundation and a failed suicide. The author concludes by describing concepts of afterlife as held by religions, most of which promise some form of immortality."
From Library Journal:
"Not really psychology or anthropology per se, Palmer's book is a tour of such death-related places as a death theme park in Taiwan (the title of the book is a ride at the park), a burial in Ghana (where funerals are so lavish that families usually have to store the body in a morgue for several years while saving up for the wake), a cryonics facility, a funeral parlor in Florida that features a drive-up window, and more. While this title will not add much to a serious social sciences collection, it is quite interesting and entertaining. It is a companion volume to a PBS series that debuted in October."
An interesting sociological look at how various societies handle death. Written with humor and respect, Greg Palmer looks at cryopreservation, hospices, Day of the Dead, and other cultures to discover what death means to the peoples of the world.
From Publishers Weekly:
"In this surprising, occasionally sobering but often lighthearted travelogue designed to accompany a PBS series, Palmer, a broadcaster, playwright and filmmaker, examines death images across the world, interviewing people or just poking around and examining horror books, cartoons and other entertainments. He notes the tranquil names often given to cemeteries, like the ubiquitous Pleasant Hill or Taiwan's Happy Peace Garden. In lively anecdotes, Palmer reports on the attitudes towards death declared by a Ghanaian witch doctor, a Buddhist priest, an AIDS hospice patient, the head of a cryonics foundation and a failed suicide. The author concludes by describing concepts of afterlife as held by religions, most of which promise some form of immortality."
From Library Journal:
"Not really psychology or anthropology per se, Palmer's book is a tour of such death-related places as a death theme park in Taiwan (the title of the book is a ride at the park), a burial in Ghana (where funerals are so lavish that families usually have to store the body in a morgue for several years while saving up for the wake), a cryonics facility, a funeral parlor in Florida that features a drive-up window, and more. While this title will not add much to a serious social sciences collection, it is quite interesting and entertaining. It is a companion volume to a PBS series that debuted in October."
An interesting sociological look at how various societies handle death. Written with humor and respect, Greg Palmer looks at cryopreservation, hospices, Day of the Dead, and other cultures to discover what death means to the peoples of the world.
