Obitchuary

July 15, 2024
Henry and Reyes, who share outlandish real-life death notices on their Obitchuary podcast, serve up macabre trivia in this entertaining mélange. A rundown of famous last words notes that Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman reportedly said, “This dying is boring,” before succumbing to cancer. Elsewhere, a survey of death row inmates’ last meals notes that in 2011, a convicted murderer requested steaks, fajitas, pizza, cheeseburgers, an omelet, and ice cream only to refuse to eat any of it, reporting that he wasn’t hungry. The authors compile colorful obituaries originally published in news outlets commemorating, among others, the chihuahua featured in late 1990s Taco Bell ads and a father reviled for his “complete commitment to drinking, drugs, womanizing” (“He leaves behind 2 relieved children,” reads the scathing obit they wrote for him). Details about historical death rituals fascinate, as when Henry and Reyes explain how, in 18th-century England and Wales, “sin-eaters” were called on to “absorb” the sins of the dying so they could more easily reach the afterlife. Unfortunately, the authors’ irreverent tone sometimes clashes with the serious subject matter (it’s hard to find amusement in, for instance, a blistering obituary written by adult children who accuse their dead mother of neglect and abuse). The occasional lapse into glibness aside, this will appeal to readers with a dark sense of humor. Illus.