Obituary Guide dot com, September 24, 2007
David McConkey
The new book
The
Portable Obituary: How the Famous, Rich, and Powerful Really Died
by Michael
Largo makes for fascinating - if
irreverent – reading.
A cheeky and even disrespectful reference work, the book is an
alphabetical listing of famous deaths
– from Alexander the Great to Guy Williams (Zorro). But it is
also much more.
Largo illustrates how the way his subjects lived is often related to
how they died. He documents how their “deeds, intimate
habits, and lifestyles, good and bad, ultimately influenced their mode
of death and, in due course, determined their role in history and
culture.”
The
Portable Obituary can be read
for sheer interest and satisfying our
sometimes morbid curiosity. As
Largo says, “Who wouldn’t want to know what
happened to the inventor of the bar code, or the Popsicle, or the
disposable camera?”
Largo writes in a serendipitous style, wandering where his research and
fancy take him. John and Lionel Barrymore’s account leads to
an entry explaining the role of alcoholism in death. Rock
Hudson’s to a note about actors and AIDS. Brian Jones (late
of the Rolling Stones, found dead in a swimming pool) to a description
of other
musicians and their deaths by “misadventure.”
A good obituary is an illumination of a life lived. As Michael
Largo, the author of
The
Portable Obituary: How the Famous, Rich, and Powerful Really Died points out, “Life, famous or not, can only be understood
backward.”
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