On Our Way: The Final Passage Through Life and Death

by Robert J. Kastenbaum

Book Overview

How do our ideas about dying influence the way we live? Life has often been envisioned as a journey, the river of time carrying us inexorably toward the unknown country--and in our day we increasingly turn to myth and magic, ritual and virtual reality, cloning and cryostasis in the hope of eluding the reality of the inevitable end. In this book a preeminent and eminently wise writer on death and dying proposes a new way of understanding our last transition. A fresh exploration of the final passage through life and perhaps through death, his work deftly interweaves historical and contemporary experiences and reflections to demonstrate that we are always on our way.

Drawing on a remarkable range of observations--from psychology, anthropology, religion, biology, and personal experience--Robert Kastenbaum re-envisions life's forward-looking progress, from early-childhood bedtime rituals to the many small rehearsals we stage for our final separation. Along the way he illuminates such moments and ideas as becoming a "corpsed person," going down to earth or up in flames, respecting or abusing (and eating) the dead, coping with "too many dead," conceiving and achieving a "good death," undertaking the journey of the dead, and learning to live through the scrimmage of daily life fully knowing that Eternity does not really come in a designer flask. Profound, insightful, often moving, this look at death as many cultures await it or approach it enriches our understanding of life as a never-ending passage.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520218809
• ISBN13: 9780520218802
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 460 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Book For Freedom

Kastenbaum is an "old hand" when it comes to death and dying and his experience and skill are seen in this book. He is one of the most prolific thanatologists and one of the most independent in his thinking and writing style. It seems to me the purpose of this book is to free the reader by providing many different ideas on dying from different cultures. The author classifies the different types of dying in an intelligent way. There is a wealth of provocative insights into our own way of dying with the accent on the reader being able to develop a critical look at the different ways of dying from different cultures and times. This book is not a how to book-it is not fromulaic. It is not hot cocoa for the mortal soul. It provides a lot of food for thought. The weakness to this book is it fails to provide a fully constructive approach to the subject of dying because it doesnt provide the scaffolding for an individual to construct their own orientation to dying-given the materials the author has provided. If youre looking for a book that provides a lot of perspective on dying with wit, insight, candor and style this book is a keeper.