Greg Palmer Death: The Trip of a Lifetime ISBN 13: 9780788153198

Death: The Trip of a Lifetime - Softcover

9780788153198: Death: The Trip of a Lifetime
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
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.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Publisher:
Greg Palmer takes readers on a fascinating voyage to discover the rites, rituals, and many ways that humans approach death and dying around the world.
From Kirkus Reviews:
A sprawling survey of death practices around the world; a companion volume to a forthcoming PBS series. As the garish subtitle (lifted from a ride at a Buddhist death-oriented theme park in Taiwan) reveals, Palmer--a filmmaker, playwright, and broadcaster--tackles his subject with a heavy dose of irreverence. Death, he points out, permeates popular culture these days, from the Grateful Dead to resurrection motifs in Spielberg films. In fact, Palmer discovers, it's the rage across the globe. In England, he meets John Litten, an expert on funerals (``the funeral itself should be the knot on the bow of life''); in Ghana, he interviews Nana Adu, a fetish priest who casts lethal curses; and Australia turns up ``The White Ladies,'' a team of pretty female embalmers, while Ireland produces a man who both deals out and dodges death, a Sinn Fein terrorist. Most of Palmer's death-tripping takes place in America: He signs on to a tour of famous Hollywood death spots; pokes around a cryonic facility in California, where the corpses (``deanimated,'' not dead, insist the firm's owners) are stored in liquid nitrogen while awaiting resuscitation; wheels through a drive-in funeral parlor in Florida. Tempering all this weirdness are conversations with families that have lost children; with doctors working on longevity (one takes 83 pills a day); and with dwellers in a bullet-ridden urban ghetto. Palmer's patter, fast and flip (``cryonics...is available to anybody with the money and the circulatory system to handle it''), falters only near the end, when he turns moralist to editorialize in defense of Jack Kevorkian and assisted suicides. A scrapbook of tidbits rather than a thought-out narrative; still, an enjoyable scamper through undiscovered country. (Eight pages of b&w photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherHarper Collins
  • Publication date1993
  • ISBN 10 0788153196
  • ISBN 13 9780788153198
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages294
  • Rating
Buy Used
Condition: Good
Satisfaction 100% guaranteed Learn more about this copy

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.

Destination, rates & speeds

Add to Basket

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780788193828: Death: The Trip of a Lifetime

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780788193828
Publisher: Harper Collins, 1993
Softcover

  • 9780062509543: Death : The Trip of a Lifetime

    Harper..., 1998
    Softcover

  • 9780062508027: Death: The Trip of a Lifetime

    Harper..., 1993
    Hardcover

  • 9780062508034: Death: The Trip of a Lifetime

    Harper..., 1995
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Greg Palmer
Published by Harper Collins (1993)
ISBN 10: 0788153196 ISBN 13: 9780788153198
Used Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Bookmans
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. Satisfaction 100% guaranteed. Seller Inventory # mon0001003862

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy Used
US$ 6.01
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds