The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries
Marilyn Johnson, . . HarperCollins, $24.95 (244pp) ISBN 978-0-06-075875-2
A journalist who's written obituaries of Princess Di and Johnny Cash, Johnson counts herself among the obit obsessed, one who subsists on the "tiny pieces of cultural flotsam to profound illuminations of history" gathered from obits from around the world, which she reads online daily—sometimes for hours. Her quirky, accessible book starts at the Sixth Great Obituary Writers' International Conference, where she meets others like herself. Johnson explores this written form like a scholar, delving into the differences between British and American obits, as well as regional differences within this country; she visits Chuck Strum, the
Reviewed on: 01/30/2006
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 272 pages - 978-0-06-075876-9