Jessica Mitford wrote this expose' about the funeral industry that has been updated for today's world. I believe it is a must read for every person out there as, "like taxes", we cannot escape death. The funeral industry is a very powerful group and has taken advantage of our weakest moment and Ms. Mitford investigates and reveals information that we all should know. I thank her for her tireless dedication in research into this field. She did the hard work for all of us so when the time comes we have to deal with this industry and our pain is so great, we aren't thinking straight. We don't ask the right questions. We are misled on what is law and what is made-up bull. She guides us through a very sensitive and overwhelming time and I applaud her. ( )

Occasionally amusing, but not the All That Exposé it's supposed to be, in my opinion. I guess you can update the prices, but you can't change how much more cynical readers are now. Businesses exploiting grief is not a shocker any more.

This is one of my favorite non-fiction works. Mitford's writing is darkly hilarious, her facts solid. It's the best kind of book- it makes you think, it makes you a little sick, but you feel better and smarter for having read it. ( )

In The American Way of Death the reader is thrust into the funeral industry and how America, as a culture, handles death. It isn't just the startling information in this book that makes it the wonderful informative book it is, but rather the way Mitford presents it.

Reading this title by Mitford is an enlightening experience for those new to the author's self-described "muckraking" style of writing. It is this style of writing, the feeling a reader gets of being not told but led through an expose is what gives this book its real power, along with Mitford's strong sense of dark humor. The juxtaposition of death and the sad reality of it with the absurdity of how we deal with it all creates a very odd feeling in a reader.

The only complaint I have is there are a few times where the information presented became a bit laborious to go through and it felt like I was being lectured instead of led. This is an absolutely minor detraction from an otherwise excellent book.

In this edition, The American way of death Revisited, Mitford also gives us a glimpse of her thoughts years after writing her original book that turned many heads in the funeral industry and the country in general.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who has ever wondered what happens behind those black curtain at the funeral home. ( )

A very interesting book about the way American culture deals with death and dying. ( )