Being a huge history nerd, my definition of “fun” is very skewed. Case in point, when I saw Sam Roberts had written Are They Dead Yet?: The Art of the Obit, my only question was how fast I could get my hands on it. What could be more fun than writing obituaries?
Clearly, this book would be a laugh riot for anyone who enjoys Irish wakes. For the uninitiated, a “good” wake is when you end up smiling and laughing, telling stories about the deceased way more than crying and lamenting. Roberts brings that energy to the book along with the actual nuts and bolts of writing obituaries.
The book has a ton of great insights. Such as the fact that there is a database of obituaries already written for a bunch of people who are still very much alive. Or that calling the actual alive person for an interview to prep the obit is an actual thing which happens. It’s just story after story of the interesting world of obituaries. The slight criticism I have is that each chapter tries to have a theme, but they often devolve (wonderfully) into a litany of stories. It is a truly minor issue that shouldn’t sway anyone away from reading this one.
(This book was provided as a review copy by Bloomsbury Publishing.)
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