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Product Description
Product Description
At forty-four, Tom Jokinen decided to quit his job in order to become an apprentice undertaker, setting out to ask the questions: What is the right thing to do when someone dies? With the marketplace offering new options (go green, go anti-corporate, go Disney, be packed into an artificial reef and dropped in the Atlantic...), is there still room for tradition? In a year of adventures both hair-raising and hilarious, Jokinen finds a world that is radically changed since Jessica Mitford revised The American Way of Death, more surprising than Six Feet Under, and even funnier and more illuminating than Stiff. If Bill Bryson were to apprentice at a funeral home, searching for the meaning of life and death, youd have Curtains.
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18 reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Fascinating Read
31 Mar 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Like the tv show "Dirty Jobs", there are some jobs only a select few can do. The funeral industry is one of them. Imagine you (a regular person) are suddenly dropped into a funeral home to be an apprentice. "Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker-in-Training" is that book. It's one of those "I want to know/I don't want to know" situations but the book is fascinating. It will get you thinking about death, life and the meaning of it all. Tom Jokinen's observations are right on the money and reflect what, I think, I would feel if placed in the same situation. An unusual topic but a page turner nevertheless.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
just OK
3 Aug 2010
Format:Paperback
This book is okay. It's a quick read, covers a fascinating topic, is well written, has a few interesting insights, and is amusing in places.
Unfortunately, it's like a ton of other similar books out there. I didn't find anything in this one that would be any better or worse than all those other books that you'll see under Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought, What Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item, and so on. If you've never read one of these before, great. You'll enjoy it. If you have, though (like me), you'll probably feel like you've already read it before.
It's basically an outsider's take on a fascinating "dirty job." Now, that includes some dark humor, some scattered musings, some interesting tidbits, and one (not-all-that-closely-related) vignette after another. It's kind of a like an extended magazine article, or maybe a series of magazine articles hooked loosely together.
What it's lacking is any real story line, depth in the musings, or feel for the characters. If that's what you're after, let me recommend, perhaps, In the Land of Long Fingernails: A Gravedigger in the Age of Aquarius. Forgive the pun, but Curtains, like a bad grave, was just a little too shallow for me.
Unfortunately, it's like a ton of other similar books out there. I didn't find anything in this one that would be any better or worse than all those other books that you'll see under Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought, What Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item, and so on. If you've never read one of these before, great. You'll enjoy it. If you have, though (like me), you'll probably feel like you've already read it before.
It's basically an outsider's take on a fascinating "dirty job." Now, that includes some dark humor, some scattered musings, some interesting tidbits, and one (not-all-that-closely-related) vignette after another. It's kind of a like an extended magazine article, or maybe a series of magazine articles hooked loosely together.
What it's lacking is any real story line, depth in the musings, or feel for the characters. If that's what you're after, let me recommend, perhaps, In the Land of Long Fingernails: A Gravedigger in the Age of Aquarius. Forgive the pun, but Curtains, like a bad grave, was just a little too shallow for me.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Accurate and honest
4 Jun 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I work in the industry and must say that Jokinen did a fabulous job with the details! A little wordy at times, but I enjoyed it very much! There is a lot of information to cover when writing about the Death Care industry and he covered a lot of ground in a short amount of pages. Awesome job! I've passed the book on at work to see what my co-workers thought and I haven't seen the book since!
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