Name: This Party's Dead
ISBN: 9781783529544

Erica Buist

Journalist Erica Buist travels to seven death festivals around the world (Nepal, Madagascar, Indonesia, Sicily, Japan, Mexico and New Orleans) in search of better attitudes towards death

Grief, Joy and Spilled Rum at the World's Death Festivals

This Party's Dead

Laura Wilson

What if we responded to death... by throwing a party? By the time Erica Buist’s father-in-law Chris was discovered, upstairs in his bed, his book resting on his chest, he had been dead for over a week. She searched for answers (the artery-clogging cheeses in his fridge?) and tried to reason with herself (does daughter-in-law even feature in the grief hierarchy?) and eventually landed on an inevitable, uncomfortable truth: everybody dies. While her husband maintained a semblance of grace and poise, Erica found herself consumed by her grief, descending into a bout of pyjama-clad agoraphobia, stalking friends online to ascertain whether any of them had also dropped dead without warning, unable to extract herself from the spiral of death anxiety... until one day she decided to reclaim control. With Mexico’s Day of the Dead festivities as a starting point, Erica decided to confront death head-on by visiting seven death festivals around the world – one for every day they didn’t find Chris. From Mexico to Nepal, Sicily, Thailand, Madagascar, Japan and finally Indonesia – with a stopover in New Orleans, where the dead outnumber the living ten to one – Erica searched for the answers to both fundamental and unexpected questions around death anxiety. This Party’s Dead is the account of her journey to understand how other cultures deal with mortal terror, how they move past the knowledge that they’re going to die in order to live happily day-to-day, how they celebrate rather than shy away from the topic of death – and how when this openness and acceptance are passed down through the generations, death suddenly doesn’t seem so scary after all.

This book is perfect. It’s sad, it’s funny, it’s incredibly interesting, and it’s thought provoking. Death is such curious topic that really changes depending on the culture you are raised on. Definitely one of my favorite books of the year. I’m stoked I stumbled across this randomly at a bookstore.

Suzanne

It is fascinating how differently we deal with death in different countries and cultures.
This is a non fiction book following Erica Buist to seven death festivals around the world (Nepal, Madagascar, Indonesia, Sicily, Japan, Mexico and New Orleans).
I tried to leave my own notion behind of what I consider "normal" around dying and burying while reading this.
This is one of the few books where I feel she could've written even more about the different places she visited. It was so interesting to learn how people deal with dying and death and the amount of love that still goes around. I am considering implementing some of the ideas for my deceased family members (celebrating, using flowers, baking sweets.
Such a beautiful and personal journey and full of interesting facts. Highly recommend it.

This Party's Dead Grief, Joy and Spilled Rum at the World's Death Festivals

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