American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning
SKU: 38665030552

American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning

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American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of MourningSomeone dies. What happens next? One family inters their matriarch's ashes on the floor of the ocean. Another holds a memorial weenie roast each year at a green burial cemetery. An 1898 ad for embalming fluid promises, "You can make mummies with it " while a leading contemporary burial vault is touted as impervious to the elements. A grieving mother, 150 years ago, might spend her days tending a garden at her daughter's grave. Today, she might tend

Someone dies. What happens next?

One family inters their matriarch's ashes on the floor of the ocean. Another holds a memorial weenie roast each year at a green-burial cemetery. An 1898 ad for embalming fluid promises, "You can make mummies with it " while a leading contemporary burial vault is touted as impervious to the elements. A grieving mother, 150 years ago, might spend her days tending a garden at her daughter's grave. Today, she might tend the roadside memorial she erected at the spot her daughter was killed. One mother wears a locket containing her daughter's hair; the other, a necklace containing her ashes.

What happens after someone dies depends on our personal stories and on where those stories fall in a larger tale--that of death in America. It's a powerful tale that we usually keep hidden from our everyday lives until we have to face it.

American Afterlife by Kate Sweeney reveals this world through a collective portrait of Americans past and present who find themselves personally involved with death: a klatch of obit writers in the desert, a funeral voyage on the Atlantic, a fourth-generation funeral director--even a midwestern museum that takes us back in time to meet our death-obsessed Victorian progenitors. Each story illuminates details in another until something larger is revealed: a landscape that feels at once strange and familiar, one that's by turns odd, tragic, poignant, and sometimes even funny.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 10/01/2016
ISBN: 9780820350585
Pages: 232
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.33h x 5.34w x 0.60d
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SKU: 38665030552

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Jon Pettersen
Whiting, US
★★★★★ 5
Fast an easy
Format: Paperback
Quick delivery and a very nice comic book.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2026
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Shan
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 5
Thrilling and illustrated beautifully
Format: Paperback
Do not miss this series if your a Star Wars fan, if your a Vader fan in particular this is a must read comic as it really goes into Vaders early days and his journey to become a true champion of the dark side. Had to put it down on purpose several times so it would not end. Loving my second read of the same volume as well. This book pulls no punches and the writing is much better than I thought it would be. This is one of the few new Marvel comics that can stand tall with the classics and Dark Horses comics. Illustrations are top notch and the story is well thought out.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2019
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Doc Watson
Port Orchard, US
★★★★★ 4
An origins story of sorts
Format: Paperback
Darth Vader is an angry man. Recently Anakin Skywalker, hero of the Republic, the Chosen One in the eyes of some of the Jedi, he is now a literally broken man, as much machine as human, as result of losing a battle with his former master—and ‘brother’—and left to die along the lava rivers of Mustafar. Worse, he is bereft of his great love, Padme Amidala, and is at least the proximate, if not the direct, cause of her death. So yeah, he has a few things to work out. This first volume of the second DV run from Marvel focuses on how Vader becomes Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith that strikes fear in the hearts of friend and foe alike. The plot here across the six collected issues is fairly minimal. Having lost his lightsaber to Obi-Wan in the Mustafar fight, he needs a new one, and it needs to a Sith saber, which can only be gotten by taking a saber from a foe and “bleeding” it, by infusing its crystal with all the hate and anger that drives the Sith. In the process, this will turn the crystal’s light red (thus explaining why Sith sabers are the color they are). So, the first three issues are about him acquiring and crafting said saber. The other issues are his rocky introduction to and training of the Inquisitorious, the Emperor’s new Jedi hunters. So, with six issues of not a whole lot of story, does this collection work? To my surprise, yes it does. This is all about emotion, and if there is a standout star, it’s Vader’s rage. His former life gone, crushed and burned in the fires of Mustafar, Vader’s going to forge a new one in the very flames of his anger. Writer Charles Soule has done a fine job in depicting this inner turmoil and translating it into the foundations of the Dark Lord’s new life. Also nicer is artist Giuseppe Camuncoli’s work. The artwork is dynamic—Vader is agile, fluid and skillful —and interesting. It’s good stuff and does a fine job giving us insight to Vader’s state of mind. As I’ve said, there’s not a whole lot of story here, but there is a fine character study of damaged man rebuilding himself into a powerful and formidable individual.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2023
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Kenny Smith
Boise, US
★★★★★ 5
Good story
Format: Paperback
Awesome to see what happens right after episode 3
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Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2025
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Zack Klesel
Dallas, US
★★★★★ 5
I love star wars
Format: Paperback
Yet, I love his comic book so much. I love Star Wars a lot too. I mean, this is a lot. This is a really cool comic. I love seeing dark vader fight like it's really cool
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Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2026

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