[pessimizer]

May I recommend "The American Way of Death" by Jessica Mitford (the entirely human Mitford sister)?

The basic story is that the funeral industry completely captured the regulating of the disposal of dead people a long, long time ago.

[cpr]

C'mon, all the Mitford sisters were fun people--one was a passing girlfriend of Hitler, one of Mussolini, one married the head of the brownshirts (fascist league) in Britain. Jessica married a Marxist professor at Berkeley (I believe it was). Actually, wasn't it Nancy who was generally less wild (and the most famous of the sisters)?

If you read Evelyn Waugh's Letters, there's a whole treasure trove of exchanges with the Mitford sisters.