Customer Reviews

Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent exploration of several forms of disposition of a body leading chapter by chapter to a very logical concluding chapter on "green burial". Each chapter has been carefully researched and is given sympathetic coverage. The book is very well written and contains extremely useful information for anyone wishing to find out about the subject before actually needing to know! I highly recommend it.
Grace Schoedel
president, Champaign County (Illinois) Funeral Consumers Alliance

With a completely objective approach, Mr. Harris has researched thoroughly many various aspects of burial/funeral procedures and options, giving the reader detailed information about specific processes and choices available to the consumer. Each chapter ends with a concise wrap-up of things you need to know - a great feature of this book. No detail is unexplored. What some may consider untouchable subject, Mark Harris has developed into a very professional and dignified outcome.

Every family should consider this book a MUST for the shelf. Though no one wants to think of the inevitable, all should want to be prepared early on, and this book gives you the information you NEED to know.

A Shortridge
San Diego, CA

. . . would you want to be as ignorant about childbirth as most people are about 'procedures' at the time of death? The author's premise is that preparation for death, and burials, should be "GREEN" - - I happen to agree, and will donate my remains to a teaching hospital, me & my Pacemaker and all four replacment joints (if they'll have me).

The thinking of humans advances in pitifully tiny increments. In recent years the number of cremations has increased dramatically, and Green Cemeteries are no longer considered for space aliens only. Mark Harris shapes his book around ten persons who carried out decisions not relying primarily on undertakers and embalmers. Details about funerals held in the home, burial on one's own property, burial at sea, working with state laws, even the purchase of cardboard caskets for cremation . . . these are discussed quite fully in this book with sources given, costs, even the author's web site.

The book stresses the benefits of treating the death of loved ones in a totally personal way while honoring convictions about a green, less toxic world. Reviewer mcHaiku believes that the greatest hurdle in working one's beliefs seamlessly into discussions, and making satisfactory decisions about "bodies, the disposal of" . . . is squeamishness and the emotional reactions of the moment.

Knowledge can be 'freeing' and contribute towards amicable acceptance. Author Mark Harris has provided details, details (ad nauseam, for some). The book (Be sure to read the full title) is generous with information that will help all readers reach more 'environmentally correct' decisions because we owe this to our planet.

Finally, someone has punched a big, wide hole in the distasteful practice of the American funeral. This book might surprise you on how it will change your perspective on death; either of a loved one or your own eventual one. Who in their right mind has wanted to consider a funeral in the framework of the century-long trend of embalming, gawking and metal boxing. But to consider it in the eco-friendly, natural ways that Harris discusses here is strangely much more acceptable. I feel amazingly better about the whole business now that I know no one in my immediate family or myself will have to be pumped with posion, laid out like a plastic dummy and placed in a $10,000 container that will never be seen again, or made to enhance the earth in any way. Weird as it may seem to those who may not have read this book, I will take much pleasure when I soon begin building my own coffin. Not that I plan to use it for the next couple of decades, but it surely will give me a platform to talk about the hideous practice of the traditional but obscene American funeral. I plan to make my own coffin, but have yet decided to be buried or creamated in it. Mr. Harris, thank you. And to those kind souls who participated in a very important book.

I seldom use the word "should" because of its moral connotations. In this case, however, I feel it appropriate to say that everyone should read this book. Every week I take out the trash. It's not a job I like but one I know has to be done. We all will face the time when we have to do the same for a loved one or ourselves when we check out. This book provides specifics as to the process of embalming, costs of burial and even the process of rotting in traditional cemetaries. I love how the author refers to them as landfills. Sooner or later we all will have to deal with these issues and its best we take the responsiblity because ignoring the problem won't make it go away.

These pages do the human race a great service. Every Funeral Director needs to read this book. Death is not a pleasant subject. This book is more than worth the price. Everyone has trouble thinking about grave matters. Just as cremation came to America, so comes the green funeral. This book is the future in Funerals, it is well thought out, researched and well written. Practical How to tips are in the back of each chapter. Everyone needs to read these tips. Everyone! Great work, Mark Harris.

Funeral Directors please read this book with an open mind. Personally, I have found this book helpful in my work with families in the Funeral Profession.

This book is concise and informative and provides a great overview of the various burial alternatives that are accepted in the US today. It presents the options, which range from one end of the spectrum to the other. This is an eye-opener for those who think the modern funeral industry is the way to go (pun intended). I have already passed this book on to my family and will encourage all my friends and loved ones to read it. At least they can make decision about their own burial from an informed point of view.

The book is clearly biased for natural burial methods and against the modern funeral industry. I have learned about alternatives to the prototypical procedures and will change how I live. This book will guide me when I have discussions with others about this topic.

Highly recommended.

Author Mark Harris is no muckraker. He is not out to one-up Jessica Mitford's "The American Way of Death" or to pillory the American funeral industry. Nevertheless, he makes a compelling and convincing case for "green" funerals and a more natural approach to burials. He looks anew at what we now consider the "traditional" funeral service which is relatively recent, dating back only about 150 years.

The amount of resources, space and money consumed by the funeral industry is daunting. The chemicals released into the environment through embalming and cremation are not insignificant. Harris re-examines a wide gamut of funeral practices, extending to burial at sea, memorial offshore reefs, home funerals, plain pine boxes, backyard burials and "natural" cemeteries.

Modern man's unease with the taboo topic of death has outsourced and pushed away the experience of caring for the dead from homes to outside undertakers and funeral parlors. Harris suggests that something has been lost in this transition. He is no tree hugger and does not come off as a zealot.

"Grave Matters" may trigger a thoughtful epiphany to the topic of end of life planning, offering new perspectives and alternatives in ways of dealing with our post-life bodies in ways that harmonize with our physical environment.

An excellent text continuing the seminal work decades ago of Jessica Mitford to educate Americans in particular about past and present funeral practices, both cultural and legal, and empowering more informed decisions on delaing with one's own or others' human remains.

This information should be of prime importance to individuals for themselves and their families and to those like me [Bill Jolly, a Cemetery Superintendent] with professional roles involved.