Death: The Trip of a Lifetime [Paperback]

Greg Palmer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0788153196 | ISBN-13: 978-0788153198 | Publication Date: March 1, 1993

Who said the reaper has to be grim? Filled with the frightening, funny, poignant, & just plain weird, this delightfully different travelogue follows one man s quest to discover how people around the world cope with the incontrovertible fact of death. The result is a wise, witty, decidedly quirky celebration of how we all face life. Explores human beings simultaneous fear & fascination with death; the physiological & psychological experience of death; the world s funeral & grieving rites; & religious, spiritual, & philosophical theories about immortality. Color photos.

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. He reminds us that death is celebrated in holidays commemorating public figures and war heroes. 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. Illustrations not seen by PW . $50,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The aging Sixties generation now confronts death in this nonfiction romp that rivals Evelyn Waugh's classic The Loved One (1951) as a laugh-a-minute examination of death rituals and customs. 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), the Alcor Life Extension Foundation (a cryonics facility), a funeral parlor in Florida that features a drive-up window, and much, much more. While this title will not add much to a serious social sciences collection, it is quite interesting and entertaining. In addition, it is a companion volume to a PBS series that debuted in October. Recommended for public libraries.
- Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, Wash.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 294 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins (March 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0788153196
• ISBN-13: 978-0788153198
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,401,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's only death, why worry?, January 27, 2004

By 

Daniel K. West (Columbus, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death: The Trip of a Lifetime (Hardcover)

A friend loaned me a copy of this book when I was doing some serious soul searching. It took me almost 6 months to work up the courage to read Mr. Palmer's book because I did not want to confront 'death' even by opening a book about the subject. When I finally did start reading it I found it hard to put down. Greg Palmer is alternately funny and somber, dealing deftly with each situation as he tries to understand what 'death' means. From his first experience with death, through the many people he encounters along the way, Mr. Palmer provides a much wider view of the world than we are used to. The book is a difficult journey, undertaken both with humor and great love. I recommend this book to anyone seeking an understanding of death and how it affects those left behind.
Do not fear death, come to understand it, we only fear the things we do not know.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and funny, November 2, 2010

By 

Brian Siegel (Greenville, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death: The Trip of a Lifetime (Paperback)

I'm a cultural anthropologist, and was compelled to pick this up when I saw it. It is the most sensitive, beautiful, and funny book about death I have ever read. I bought a copy for a dying friend, and she loved it too -- though it creeped out her daughters at the time.

5.0 out of 5 stars Like Birth, Death has many rituals. "Let me count the ways.", April 16, 2011

By 

Michael Putman (Bronx, NY, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death: The Trip of a Lifetime (Hardcover)

IF you don't want to die, don't get born. Opps! Too late. If you reading this, you are already in for the ride. Therefore, read this book and discover the range of rituals men and women in every society among humankind perform for this one of five most important events in our personal lives. Along the way, find confirmation older than the ancient Greek Stoic, Epictetus, who suggested physical death is not the problem. It is our fear of death. With surprising underlying warmth, Greg Palmer surveys how human societies choose to acknowledge the event none can avoid. Like birth, attainment of adulthood, marriage, and parenting, death is one of the five most ritualized life passages. The one who is born, grows up, marries, parents and dies is not the only one who is affected. In each of the five, there is an ever-shifting mix of altering relationships with others, tears, joy, and affirmatios. Take the chance this book offes and find new meanings.