This Party's Dead
by Erica Buist
Non-fiction. Themes: Travel Memoir, Death, Culture, Grief, History
Have you ever wished death wasn’t so morbid? Or perhaps curious about how death and grief are considered in other cultures? In her newest book, This Party’s Dead. Grief, Joy and Spilled Rum at the World’s Death Festivals, writer and journalist Erica Buist embarks on a worldwide investigation of how different cultures honor their dead and how these traditions ease or compound the death anxiety of the living. Traveling from Mexico to Indonesia (and with five other stops along the way), we learn about the traditions, rituals and icons of other cultures. And being a native New Orleans girl, I especially loved the chapter set in my hometown and the wide range of facts I learned about care of the dead in the Big Easy.
Especially alluring about this book is the author’s irreverent voice. Buist captures the irony and beauty that live side-by-side while sprinkling in some serious social commentary along the way. Her cleverly composed book is part belly-laugh hilarious and part heart wrenching confession of raw grief. All in all, it’s an excellent read, long before the end.
Tease on the back cover reads: “What if we weren’t taught to fear death, to sanitize it, to hide it away alongside our grief? What if, instead, we learned to accept it, to celebrate it, to view death as a natural part of life? What if we responded to death…by throwing a party?”.