Nonfiction
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0 Holds on 1 Copy
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PUBLISHED
©2026
DESCRIPTION
xx, 267 pages : illustration ; 22 cm
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Prologue -- The dead beat -- In the beginning -- You must remember this -- You can't defame the dead -- Whose life is it, anyway? -- Unearthing the past -- Famous last words -- The nearly departed -- Lucky stiffs -- Obits to die for -- Overlooked -- Are they dead yet? -- Ghostwriting -- You've got mail -- Overheard -- Read obits; live longer
"After nearly a decade behind the obituaries desk at the paper of record, Roberts knows obits aren't really about deaths. In fact, they usually only mention dying once. Over the course of the nearly 1,500 obituaries he has written throughout his career, he has instead come to understand that they're about distilling an entire life lived-for someone whose name he may have learned that morning. In Are They Dead Yet?, Roberts explores the major questions that arise from the task of producing a succinct yet record-defining account of a life. Who deserves an obituary, and how do we decide who gets one? How does an obituarist choose what to include-and to omit? What happens when embarrassing information, like a crime, affair, or wonky cause of death, makes itself known? What makes a legacy, a claim to fame? And what happens when that claim to fame, so important in death, isn't what mattered in life at all? With wit, wisdom, and behind-the-scenes intrigue, Roberts examines the practice of writing advance obituaries, of which there are more than 2,000 on hold and regularly updated at the New York Times, America's relationship to death in the wake of 9/11 and the pandemic, classic euphemistic language, and more. Through it all, Roberts brings his humor, shrewdness, and experience to prove what he has learned from a long career in death: There's no such thing as an ordinary life." -- Provided by publisher