Smoke Gets in your Eyes: and Other Lessons from the Crematory

A must-read for anyone with a morbid sense of humor who has curiosities about death, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes is as educational and entertaining as it is just plain interesting. 

Ever wondered if there’s an order to who gets cremated when (there is)? Or how embalming began (with advertisements, like any good business)? Or what a dead body smells like (sweet, yet disgusting)? Caitlin Doughty is here to help, as long as you’re willing to listen to the nitty-gritty details.

“A girl always remembers the first corpse she shaves.”

Narrated perfectly by the author herself, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes explores Caitlin Doughty’s time working in a crematory in San Francisco and her journey to discover the secrets of the death industry…and maybe even change it once she does.

This book was unafraid, completely fascinating, and actually downright funny at times. Doughty’s sense of humor (not just about death, but the outrageousness of life experiences in general), mixed with her clearly complete knowledge of the death industry was incredibly intriguing. So much so that, even as a harsh audiobook critic, I found it hard not to consume the entire story in one sitting.

“The fear of death is why we build cathedrals, have children, declare war, and watch cat videos online at three a.m.”

That being said, the beginning chapters, which followed a more vignette-style as they each explored a different crematory adventure (or, often mishap) interwoven with historical context as they revealed parts of the industry,  were much more interesting to me than the ones at the end. As the novel goes on, the overall tone of the story moves away from lighthearted education and awareness into a pretty strong call for action. 

As Doughty searches for greater heights and meaning in her death-industry journey, she begins to repeat what becomes clear is her platform: that a change to the death industry is necessary. The sheer saturation of this in the ending chapters is jarring in comparison to its total lack thereof in the beginning three-quarters of the book and became somewhat unnecessarily repetitive (not to mention, much less entertaining), which ends up leading to a rather abrupt ending to the memoir overall. 

“Looking mortality straight in the eye is no easy feat. To avoid the exercise, we choose to stay blindfolded, in the dark as to the realities of death and dying. But ignorance is not bliss, only a deeper kind of terror.”

That being said, I loved this book and what it taught me and will, without a doubt, be exploring Doughty’s other work. I rated Smoke Gets in Your eyes 4.5 out of 5 stars. Fans of Maybe you should talk to Someone should consider this for their next read.

You can read Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and other great audiobooks for free with a 30-day trial of Scribd.