美国亚马逊网站关于《讣告》原版书的读者评论

1、Obituaries of 199 people and a dead parrot from “The Economist’s” popular column. Each stylishly written story and accompanying photograph surprises, entertains, and stimulates. The titled, wealthy, and powerful are here, of course, including Diana, Princess of Wales, Gerald Ford, Bob Hope, John Paul II, Norman Mailer, Mstislav Rostropovich, and General William Westmoreland, but so are others: a cookery teacher and spy, the inventor of instant noodles, a self-proclaimed gypsy king, a musical psychic, an American gangster, a patriotic crook, a philosopher of consumerism, a master of tabloid journalism, a protector of minorities, a veteran of Gallipoli, the greatest of second bananas, and Alex the African Grey. This book is as entertaining as it is edifying; it’s a great gift for biography, history, and popular-culture fans, as well as for everyone who turns first to the obituary pages in the daily newspaper. As Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) put it: “I never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure.”

包含199个人和一只去世鹦鹉的讣告，选自《经济学人》颇受欢迎的栏目。每则附带照片的人物故事文笔优美，给人以惊喜、快乐和刺激。当然，这本书里有达官贵人和权势之人：戴安娜王妃、福特总统、鲍勃霍普、教皇约翰保罗二世、诺曼梅勒、罗斯特罗波维奇和威斯特摩兰将军，也有其他凡夫俗子：烹饪教师和间谍、方便面之父、自封的吉普赛人国王、音乐灵媒、美国黑帮大佬、少数民族保护者、加里波利战役老兵、最伟大的喜剧配角和非洲灰鹦鹉亚历克斯。这本书既非常有趣，又给人启迪；是给传记、历史和流行文化爱好者，以及每一个看报纸首先翻阅讣告版的人的绝佳礼物。正如克拉伦斯·达罗（1857-1938，美国传奇律师）所言：“我从未杀过一个人，但我却很愉快地读了很多讣告。”

2、 Our World in a Broad Collection of 2-Page Articles

我们的世界，就在内容广博的两页文章合集中

As a teacher of both English and history, I have a passion for great stories, for evocative language that creates powerful images in my mind--and in the minds of my students. For some time now, THE ECONOMIST obituaries have been a staple in my classroom, and I have diligently spread the word to other teachers in all fields of endeavor, that those obituaries can transform understanding of events, times, ideas--and more. Each week, when I get the magazine (paper, as they call it), the back page draws me in and I enter the world of someone whose life has ended, even as my comprehension of it begins. Choice of subject, as Keith Colquhoun says in his explanation of the history of the obituaries, depends on none of the expected rules: heroes are neither expected nor rejected; the good, the bad, and the ugly find a place. The obituaries examine influence--whether for good or ill, whether on nations or neighborhoods--and the writing of them requires that the journalist become a chameleon.

For a very long time, I assumed that many different, unidentified people stepped up to write the obituaries, that they dwelled in other realms of the magazine, fulfilling other responsibilities, until someone in their area of expertise died. At that point, their knowledge blended with their specific writing skills, and the life emerged, full, vivid, and whole. Not so. According to Colquhuon, the task has fallen to three people (I believe: I took the book to school to share its contents with other teachers and the librarian and I do not have it to hand), of whom he is the third. I should have known, but the obituaries themselves never exposed that reality to me. Ray Bradbury's obituary allowed me to inhabit a new Martian chronicle: his work, his legacy, provided the vehicle for the obituary. As a lover of his books, I could immerse myself one last time in his creativity--though it was actually the hand of Colhuquon that wrote it. Whether architects of buildings or of madness, of books or nations--each person's story seems to be the work of an intimate, a person who knows the heart and mind, who has steeped himself in that history. But that is not so. In this book, THE ECONOMIST BOOK OF OBITUARIES, Colquhoun opens the door to reveal the hows and whys of those tales of real makers of change, and he fascinates me. And let me clarify--the changes may be simple acts of kindness. Life is the goal of the obituaries.

I immediately let my librarian know that the book was available; I bought it for myself and my classroom the moment I heard about it. I cannot say it enough: he broad scope of the obituaries in this book is incredible. As a source of entertainment, it is worth the money; as a path to knowledge about anything and everything, it cannot be beat. I love it!

作为一名英语和历史老师，我酷爱那些精彩的故事，它们以令人回味的语言文字将生动的人物形象印刻在了我和我的学生的脑海里。有一段时间，我一直把《经济学人》讣告当作我上课的主要内容，并在工作的各个领域极力向其他老师安利这句话，即这些讣告可以改变人们对历史事件、时代和思想的理解——而且不止于此。每个星期，当我拿到这份杂志（他们称之为报纸）时，最后面的讣告版就吸引着我进入某个人的生命已经逝去的世界，即便我对他（她、它）的理解才刚开始。正如基斯科尔克霍恩在讲解讣告的历史时所言，选择写哪个人物，不存在任何预期的规则：既不期待也不拒绝英雄；好人、坏人和恶人均有一席之地。讣告只看影响力——无论是好是坏，无论对国家还是对社区——写讣告需要记者成为一个变色龙。

很长一段时间里，我一直以为讣告是由许多不同、身份不明的人来写的，他们分散在杂志的其他部门，履行着其他职责，直到他们专业领域的某个人去世。这时候，他们的知识与他们特有的写作技巧就融为一体，从而在笔下呈现出饱满、生动而完整的生命。可事实并非如此。根据科尔克霍恩的说法，讣告写作任务落到了三个人身上（我相信：我把书带到学校与其他老师和图书管理员分享了其内容，我手头没有这本书），他是其中第三个人。我应该知道，但讣告本身从未向我揭示过这个事实。雷·布拉德伯里（注：美国科幻大师）的讣告令我如同栖居于一个新的火星编年史中：他的作品，他的遗产，为讣告提供了载体。作为其科幻作品的爱好者，我可以最后一次沉浸在他的创造力中——尽管实际上这出自科尔克霍恩之手。无论是建筑物或疯狂的建筑师，还是书籍或国家的建筑师——每个人的故事似乎都是一个至交密友，一个了解心灵和思想的人，一个将自己浸泡在那段历史中的人所写。但事实并非你想的那样。在这本经济学人《讣告》书中，科尔克霍恩打开了一扇门，揭示了那些真正的变革创造者的故事是如何影响世界，又是为何影响世界的，他让我着迷。让我澄清一下——这些变革可能只是单纯的善良之举。写出一个人的生命力才是讣告的目的。

我立即告知图书管理员可以去采购这本书；我一听到这本书出来，就给自己和我的教学活动买了本。我怎么说都觉得不够充分：这本书的讣告范围之广，令人难以置信。作为趣味之源，它值得花钱；作为涨知识的途径，它无可匹敌。我爱死它了！

3、Despite the gloomy title and topic, this compilation is a fascinating collection of, essentially, mini-biographies featured within the Economist during the past decade. The Economist has raised the act of obituary writing to an art form, avoiding the chronological approach to discussing the importance of a person's life, but, rather, focusing on the pure essence of what made an individual's life significant and noteworthy. The profiles collected within are not necessarily those of well-known world leaders. They are, however, profiles of people who made an impact upon the world around them, be that world defined geographically or within a vocational sector. Many may be names one has never heard of. But in reading these short biographies, the reader can't help but feel inspired.

尽管书名和主题都很阴郁沉重，但这本书是一个迷人的合集，基本上是把《经济学人》在过去十年中所写的人物小传汇编成书。经济学人将撰写讣告的行为提升到了一种艺术形式，避免了按时间顺序来讨论一个人的生命的重要意义，而是专注于使一个人的生命变得重要和值得注意的精髓（纯粹本质）。其中收集的人物简介不一定是那些知名的世界领导人。然而，它们都是对他们周围的世界产生影响的人物传略，无论这个世界是以地理还是职业领域定义。许多人的名字或许大家都从未听说过，但在阅读这些人物小传时，读者会不由自主地感到鼓舞。

4、 The Mag Seemed Better than the Book

杂志似乎好于书

As a subscriber to The Economist for more than 40 years, I have learned to treasure its obituaries. Sometimes they are brilliant. sometimes a bit pedestrian. The mix in this collection disappointed a little, and some seem to have been 'worked over' for the book. Better to have a book than not, but I will keep looking forward to each week's read anyway for that occasional gem.

作为《经济学人》40多年的订户，我已经学会珍爱它的讣告。有时他们很出彩出色，有时则有点枯燥乏味。这本集子中的组合有点令人失望，有些似乎是为这本书而"重新加工 "过的。但有书总比没有好，为了那篇偶得的佳作，我还是会继续期待每周的阅读。

5、 Who Knew Death Could Be Such Fun

谁知道死亡也会这么有趣

As a professional obituarist, albeit on a very small scale, this book gives me two goals: to write as well as Kenneth Colquhoun and Ann Wroe and to deserve an obituary in The Economist. The bar for the second is lower. While writers such as Colquhoun and Wroe are rare, if less so in the U.K., one need only be a deposed royal, a defunct dictator, a poet of dubious talent, the last survivor of a largely-forgotten battle or a clever parrot to deserve a page in the back matter of "the paper" as it is called. The obituaries are more often than not more entertaining and useful than their subjects. The seriously bad are called by their true names without waffling or bile; the virtuous are given their due without fawning. The accompanying photos are as revealing as the text

作为一个专业的讣告作者，尽管范围很小，但这本书给了我两个目标：写得像科尔克霍恩和安-罗一样好，并配得上《经济学人》的一篇讣告。第二个目标的门槛稍低些。虽然像科尔克霍恩和安罗这样的作家少之又少，即使在英国也是如此，但一个人只要是被废黜的皇室成员、下了台的独裁者、才华可疑的诗人、一场基本被遗忘的战斗的最后幸存者或一只聪明的鹦鹉，就配得上在所谓的 "报纸 "背面刊登一页内容。

讣告往往比其主题更有趣更有益。对那些恶贯满盈之徒，以真名实姓呼之，不暧昧，也不憎恨；对那些良善之人，则给予应有的赞誉而不恭维。附带的照片与文字一样发人深省。

6、Nobody does it better than "The Economist." Their insightful obits are not the usual, SOP type, they are interesting vignettes of the person who has died, told in conversational fashion. They tell about the person's life and work and how he/she thought and the "behind-the-scenes" view of the depth of the person. It is a wonderful reference book, and a book from which one can remember the "little things" about the person that makes her/him seem more "real."

没有人比 《经济学人》做得更好了。他们富有洞察力的讣告不是通常的标准作业程序（SOP）类型，而是以对话的方式讲述逝者的趣味盎然的小品文。他们讲述了这个人的生活和工作，他/她的所思所想以及对此人深刻的 "幕后 "观点。这是一本很棒的参考书，人们可以从这本书中记住这个人的 "小事"，这使她/他看起来更加 "真实"。

. 7、 Far too much fun

太可乐了

No fun is more welcome than unlikely fun.

I never thought "The Economist" and "obituaries" would find themselves in the same sentence. But English newspapers are uncommonly imaginative. And so, after 150 years without an obituary page, the editors of The Economist decided to lunch one.

"The Economist Book of Obituaries"is a collection of 200 obituaries that the paper published between 1995 and 2008. The length is fixed --- about 1,000 words. There is no template for the subjects.

Oh, there are the obligatory world leaders and corporate kings. And a British book of obits that did not include Princess Diana would raise the eyebrows of the dead. No matter. The telling detail and the previously unseen anecdote make this a seriously delightful book.

Did you know --- this is from an obit of Digby Baltzell, the scholar who coined the word WASP --- that Al Capone's son went to Yale and married a "well-connected" woman?

Did you know that Dr. Christian Barnard, who performed the first transplant of a human heart, believed that sex-with-romance was "the most beautiful, healthiest and most pleasurable way" to keep fit?

Did you know that Freddy Heineken wanted to put his beer in square bottles so the empties could be used as bricks in Third World countries?

And so many more. A musical psychic. A talking bird. The world's oldest person. (The obit begins: "For l00 years nothing much happened to Jeanne Calment.") A French ski champion, dead at 31. The king of the gypsies. The editor of the Weekly World News, who used "Bolivia" as a deadline when a story was an especially wild fabrication. A man who learned to read at age 98. Pamela Harriman, "expert between the sheets". The forger of the "Hitler diaries". Mao's mouthpiece. An English gardener.

It's a richly rewarding book, deserving of a place of honor on a coffee table. An ideal hostess gift. Useful on the bedside table, where it invites you to read one death a night, comforted by the expectation that you'll be back for the another the next night. And just delightful to read, because, as you'd expect from The Economist, these obits are so well written. Like this, on Marcel Marceau, the mime:

"He [Bip] never spoke. Mr Marceau's father died in 1944 in Auschwitz, and Bip's silence was a tribute to all those who had been silenced in the camps. It was a recollection, too, of the necessary muteness of resistance fighters caught by the Nazis, or quietly leading children across the Swiss border to safety, as Mr Marceau had done. In one of his acts, "Bip Remembers", the sad-faced clown relived in mime the horrors of the war and stressed the necessity of love. In another, his hands became good and evil: evil clenched and jerky, good flowing and emollient, with good just winning."

无趣远胜过快乐不可得。

我从未想过 "经济学人 "和 "讣告 "会出现在同一个句子里。但英国报纸富有不同寻常的想象力。因此，在150年没有讣告版之后，《经济学人》的编辑们决定做一顿午餐。

《经济学人讣告书》收集了该报在1995年至2008年间发表的200条讣告。讣告的长度是固定的——大约1,000字。写作对象没有模板。

哦，有呼风唤雨的世界领袖和企业大亨。一本不包括戴安娜王妃的英国讣告书肯定会让死者惊诧的。没关系。生动的细节和以前未见过的趣闻轶事让这本书读起来非常令人愉悦。

你知道吗？——有迪格比-波茨尔的讣告，这位学者创造了WASP这个词——阿尔-卡彭的儿子上了耶鲁大学，并娶了一个“出身名门 "的女人？

你知道吗？那个进行世界上第一例人体心脏移植手术的克里斯蒂安-巴纳德医生，认为带点浪漫的性，是 "最美丽、最健康、最愉悦的养生方式"。

你知道弗雷迪-海尼根想用方形瓶包装他的啤酒，这样空瓶子就可以在第三世界国家用作砖头吗？

还有很多很多。一个音乐灵媒。一只会说话的鸟。世界上最长寿的人。(讣告的开头是："对让娜卡尔芒来说，100年好像没有发生什么特别的事就过去了。")一位法国滑雪冠军，死于31岁。吉普赛人的国王。《世界新闻周报》的编辑，如果一个故事是特别疯狂的捏造，他就用 "玻利维亚 "作为新闻电头。一个在98岁时才学会认字的人。帕梅拉-哈里曼，"床第之间的老手"。"希特勒日记 "伪造者。毛泽东的喉舌（指王力，中文版讣告书里被拿掉了）。一个英国园丁。

这是一本收获颇丰的书，值得在咖啡桌上占有荣誉之地。一份主妇最爱的礼物。在床头柜上也很有用，它邀请你每晚读一则讣告，并期待你第二天晚上再来读另一则。读起来也很愉悦，因为正如你所期望的，《经济学人》的这些讣告文笔非常优美。比如这篇关于默剧演员马塞尔-马索的文章。

"他从不说话。马索的父亲1944年死于奥斯维辛集中营，毕普先生的沉默，是在向那些被集中营永久噤声的人致敬，是对那些被纳粹抓捕后缄口不言的抵抗斗士的追忆，也是对那些像马索一样悄悄带领儿童穿越瑞士边境的人们的纪念。他有一场表演叫作“毕普先生的回忆”， 这个一脸忧伤的小丑在默剧中再现战争的恐怖，强调爱的必要。在另一场表演中， 他的双手变成善良与邪恶的化身。邪恶的手紧握拳头，不断抖动，善良的手动作柔软流畅。最终，善良战胜了邪恶。”

8、 Definitely Worth A Read!

绝对值得一读！

My Overall Opinion of the Book This book was fascinating, educational, funny, political, and judgmental. It is almost never sad. A collection of 200 obituaries written between 1994 to 2008 (each one two pages long), The Economist Book of Obituaries is oddly enjoyable and fascinating. It may sound a strange book to read, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Even if you are not a fan of obituaries (and there are many obituary fans out there), I think you could enjoy this book purely from an entertainment and educational perspective.

Why I Read the Book I became interested in this book after reading Marilyn Johnson's The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries [[ASIN:0060758767 The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries (P.S.)]. Johnson's book documents her love of obituaries and some of the great writers of the genre. While reading her book, I learned the difference between American and British obituaries (the British are not afraid to "tell it like they see it") and joined Johnson on her visit to some of the leading obituary writers of the world. The Dead Beat was a pretty fun book to read, and I found myself wanting to read the type of obituaries that got Johnson so excited. So when LibraryThing listed The Economist Book of Obituaries in its Early Reviewer books for November, I jumped at the chance to get it. I was thrilled when I was lucky enough to receive a review copy.

The Basic Structure of the Book This is not a book you need to read straight-through. It is ideal for picking up and putting down at will. Each obituary is two pages long and includes a relevant black and white photo. The obituaries are listed in alphabetical order, and there is a Table of Contents to let you pick which ones you might want to read. (I read the book straight through since I was reviewing it, but I could definitely view this more as a book to peruse at your leisure.) Each obituary starts with a single sentence that tells the name of the deceased, their basic "claim to fame," their date of death and their age at the time of death. Other than these basic structural elements, each obituary is wildly different in style, tone and purpose.

Who Is Covered In the Book The obituaries in the book include 199 people and one parrot (Alex the African Grey -- billed as "science's best-known parrot"). The famous (Princess Diana, Bob Hope, John Paul II, Julia Child, Norman Mailer) and the not-so-famous (the inventor of the Cup of Noodles, the inventor of frozen non-dairy topping, America's King of the Hobos, Japan's royal tutor, one of the founders of Mensa). The subjects are from a wide variety of countries and from all walks of life -- scientists, musicians, writers, social activists, criminals, royalty. What makes this book great is that it doesn't matter what you know about the subject (half of the people in the book I'd never heard of), you will learn about them, their importance in the world, and their contributions to their chosen field. Each obituary is not so much about the individual person and their life story, but more about what their life meant to the world they lived in.

For example, the obituary of Sue Sumii--a champion of Japan's untouchables -- is clearly meant as a way to highlight this little discussed aspect of Japanese society. The obituary of Yasser Talal al-Zahrani -- a prisoner in Guantanamo who died at the age of 21 -- is meant to be a statement of the wrongness of Guantanamo. This particular obituary ends like this:

"As he had hoped, his death led voices around the world to demand that the camp be closed. One senior American official, immovable, called his suicide 'a good PR move.' She may have been right; Guantanamo, alas, remains, wrong."

Not all the obituaries are of a political nature. Some are sly social commentary--such as the joint obituary of Brooke Astor and Leona Helmsley (both "grandes dames of New York") that compares the two ladies radically different approaches to life by comparing everything from their dogs to their real estate holdings.

Other obituaries are very educational on a particular topic to which the person being written about contributed -- such as cricket, beekeeping, auto racing, container ships, aviation safety, surrogate parenting law, to name just a few.

Perhaps the most creatively written obituary is the joint obituary of Robert Brooks (one of the founders of Hooters) and Mickey Spillane (creator of Mike Hammer), which is written as a short story that has Mike Hammer going to Hooters. That this obituary manages to tie two such disparate people together as "suppliers of fantasies to American males" and be written in a story format while still managing to pay homage to both subjects is just pure genius.

The Style of the Book What makes these obituaries such a pleasure to read is the style in which they are written. The authors are not afraid to be irreverent, and they do not shy away from taking a detour away from the main story to make an important point. In short, the obituaries are very well-written, which is why it didn't always matter to me who they were writing about. I marked some of the my particular favorites to give you a sense of what makes these obituaries such a pleasure to read.

From the obituary of Jeanne Calment (the world's oldest person): "Perhaps it does not matter. For most people, the interest in Mrs. Calment was her durability."

From the obituary of Barbara Cartland: "She was worried about her prospects for immortality, as indeed she had reason to be." From the obituary of Estee Lauder: "Time, however, also trailed her, with his ghastly wrinkled face and his sallow hue that coordinated with no bathrooms."

From the obituary of Stanley Marcus (founder of Neiman-Marcus): "There comes a time in the life of the average billionaire when money ceases to be important. Suddenly it no longer seems to make the world go round; it has become quite boring. Stanley Marcus was sympathetic to the problem and sought to rekindle interest in possessions among those who wanted for nothing."

From the obituary of Dr Spock: "It was, on the face of it, an odd book to have become one of the bestsellers of the century. The one endeavour the human race was used to, and indeed had become quite good at, was having babies and bringing them to adulthood."

Wrap-Up I hope this review has conveyed what a unique and fascinating book this is. It certainly made me understand why Marilyn Johnson and so many others enjoy reading obituaries on a regular basis. I suspect that this book contains the creme de la creme of obituary writing, and I hope to see another edition in the future!

One final note: The book itself has a very rich feel to it. The paper has a nice sheen to it, and the book feels very weighty and solid. I appreciated that feeling and find it appropriate for a book that contains the story of 199 human lives and 1 parrot.

我对这本书的总体看法

这本书引人入胜、富有教育意义，且有趣、关心政治，评判人物苛刻。它几乎从不叫人悲伤。《讣告》书收集了1994年至2008年间写的200篇讣告（每篇两页），说也奇怪，这本书令人享受、令人着迷。听上去我可能在读一本奇怪的书，但我读之又惊又喜。即使你不是讣告迷（外面有很多讣告迷），我也觉得你可以纯粹从娱乐和教育的角度来享受这本书。

我为什么读这本书

我是在读了玛里琳-约翰逊的《先上讣告后上天堂》后对这本书发生兴趣的。约翰逊的书描写了她对讣告的热爱和一些伟大的讣告作家。读她的书，我才知道英美式讣告之间的区别（英国人不怕 "如实相告"），并与约翰逊一道，拜访一些世界一流的讣告作家。《先上讣告后上天堂》是一本相当有趣的书，我发现自己想要阅读让约翰逊如此兴奋的那类讣告。因此，当LibraryThing（图书馆之物或书籍爱好者，一个读书网站）将《讣告》书列入11月的书评家早读书单时，我捷足先登，先行品尝。当我幸运地收到一本供评论的书时，兴奋不已。

本书的基本结构

这不是一本你需要通读的书。它适合于随意拿起和放下。每个讣告都有两页，包括一张相关的黑白照片。讣告按字母顺序排列，并有一个目录，让你选择你可能想要阅读的内容。(我是从头到尾读完的，因为我在评论这本书，但我绝对可以把这本书看作是一本你可以在闲暇时阅读的书。）每份讣告都以一句话开始，告诉你逝者的名字，"成名原因"，去世日期以及年龄。除了这些基本的结构元素外，每份讣告在风格、语气和目的上都大不相同。

书中所涉及的人

书中的讣告包括199人和一只鹦鹉（非洲灰鹦鹉亚历克斯——被誉为 "科学界最著名的鹦鹉"）。有名人（戴安娜王妃、鲍勃·霍普、约翰·保罗二世、朱莉娅·查尔德、诺曼·梅勒），也有不那么有名的人（方便面之父、冷冻植脂奶油的发明者、美国的打工仔之王、日本的皇室家庭教师、门萨俱乐部创始人之一）。这些传主来自不同国家和各行各业——有科学家、音乐家、作家、社会活动家、罪犯、皇室成员。这本书的伟大之处在于，不管你对传主知道多少这些都不重要（书中一半的人我从未听说过），但你会从讣告中了解他们，了解他们在世界上的重要性，以及他们对所在领域作出的贡献。每份讣告与其说是关于个人以及他们的人生故事，毋宁说是关于他们的人生对他们所生活的这个世界的意义。

例如，住井末的讣告——维护日本“不可接触者”的斗士——显然是为了强调这个日本社会几乎避讳讨论的一面。扎赫拉尼的讣告—关塔那摩囚犯，死于21岁——意在表明关塔那摩存在的错误和不义。这条特殊的讣告以这样结尾：“正如他所希望的，他的死引发了国际社会要求关闭这所监狱的呼声。一位美国高官无动于衷，把他的自杀称为“一次有效的公关行为”。 唉，她也许是对的，但关塔那摩错误依旧”。

并非所有的讣告都是政治性的。有些是调皮的社会评论--例如布鲁克· 阿斯特和利昂娜· 赫尔姆斯利（都是 "纽约上流名媛"）的联合讣告，通过从她们的狗到持有的房地产等这一切对比，将两位女士截然不同的生活方式展露无遗。

其他讣告对被写人物在某个特定的主题上做出的贡献也非常具有教育意义——例如板球、养蜂、赛车、集装箱船、航空安全、代孕，仅举几例。

也许最有创意的讣告是罗伯特· 布鲁克斯（猫头鹰餐厅创始人之一）和米奇· 斯皮兰（迈克哈默的创造者）的联合讣告，它被写成了一个短故事，让迈克哈默去猫头鹰餐厅。这篇讣告设法把两个如此迥然不同的人联系在一起，作为 "给美国男性提供幻想的人"，并以故事的形式写出来，同时还设法向这两个人致敬，这纯粹是天才之举。

本书的风格

这些讣告之所以让人阅读起来如此愉悦，是因为它们的写作风格。作者并不害怕对逝者不敬，也不回避绕开整个故事的主线来表达重要观点。简而言之，讣告写得非常好，这就是为什么对我来说，他们写谁并不总是很重要。我标出了一些我特别喜欢的文章，让你感受一下是什么让这些讣告读起来如此愉悦。

摘自让娜-卡尔芒（世界上最长寿的人）的讣告："也许这根本不重要。大多数人感兴趣的是卡尔芒太太的生命持久度。”

摘自芭芭拉· 卡德兰的讣告："她忧心的是自己能否不朽，也的确有理由这样。”

摘自雅诗兰黛的讣告："然而，时间也在追踪她，用它那张布满皱纹的脸庞和任何浴室都无法相匹配的苍白面色。" 摘自斯坦利-马库斯（尼曼-马库斯的创始人）的讣告。"通常来说，在一个亿万富翁的生活中，总会有金钱变得不再重要的一天。他忽然发现，有钱好像也不再能使鬼推磨；花钱甚至成了相当乏味的事。斯坦利· 马库斯对此深有同感，并试图重新燃起那些一无所求之人的占有欲"。 摘自斯波克医生的讣告：“表面上看，这本书成为二十世纪的畅销书之一是件咄咄怪事，因为生儿育女并把他们抚养成人，已经是人类习以为常且十分在行的事。”

总结

我希望这篇评论已经传达了这层意思，即这是一本多么独特和迷人的书。它当然让我明白为什么玛里琳约翰逊和其他那么多人经常喜欢阅读讣告。我猜这本书已经蕴含了讣告写作的精华，希望将来能看到另一个版本的讣告书。

最后一点：这本书本身有一种非常丰富的质感。纸张有很好的光泽，书感觉非常厚重坚实。我很欣赏这种感觉，并认为这对于一本包含199个人和1只鹦鹉的故事的书来说是合适的。

9、 people were dying to be included...

As a big fan of well-written obituaries (like those in the New York Times) I am always looking for more pungently penned death notices.

This collection of obits from the Economist was right up my alley. They never published obits prior to 1995 so they are making up for lost time. They only publish one per week so they are ultra-selective. There are plenty of famous deaths marked in this book. I prefer those that honor people we might have never heard of, like Jean Baudrillard the philosopher of consumerism, Christopher Cockerell, the inventor of the hovercraft, and Rene' Thom the inventor of catastrophe theory.

One particular favorite is for "Bip." Do you remember Bip? Read this fine collection and you'll remember him.. Psst...if you know who Bip was please say nothing about it....

人们去世渴望登上讣告...

作为写作上乘的讣告（如《纽约时报》讣告）的忠实粉丝，我一直在寻找笔触更老辣的死亡通知书。

这本经济学人讣告集正合我意。他们在1995年之前从未出过讣告，因此在弥补失去的时光。他们每周只发表一篇讣告，所以他们千挑万选。这本书显而易见有很多名人的讣告。但我更喜欢那些纪念我们可能从未听说过的人，比如消费主义哲学家让-鲍德里亚、气垫船的发明者克里斯托弗-科克雷尔和突变理论的创立者勒内-托姆。

有一个特别喜欢的人是 "毕普"。你还记得毕普吗？阅读这本精美的文集，你就会记住他。嘘...如果你知道毕普是谁，请不要说出来....

10、 Worth it, even if you read the magazine

The Economist obituaries are a treat for regular readers of the magazine. But even a regular reader over the years, thirteen or so, that the feature has appeared in the magazine will be surprised at how many obituaries he cannot recall seeing before. Each obituary is only one magazine page in length, which is a strength of the feature and thus of the book. Perhaps a few obits could have been included that were not, but that is only a quibble. Each reader will have his favorites. (The Mickey Spillane entry comes to mind.)

值得一读，即使你读过这份杂志

对《经济学人》杂志的老读者来说，看讣告是件乐事。然而，即使是老读者，对这个杂志已经出了13年左右的专题栏目，也会感到惊讶，他不记得以前看过多少讣告了。每份讣告的长度只有一个杂志页面，这是该专题的优势，也是本书的优势。也许只有几份讣告可以不包括在内，但这只是吹毛求疵。每个读者都会有自己的心头爱。(此时，米奇-斯皮兰的讣告跃入脑海）。

11、 Facinating and -written

This book includes both the well-known (Allen Ginsberg) and the lesser known (at least in the US) but significant (Maurice Couve de Murville). All the obituaries are facinating, and tell the reader things she might not have known already about the well-known (Ginsberg managed to offend John Lennon) and why the less-known should be known (Couve, the foreign minister of French President from 1959-69, Charles de Gaulle, is largely credited with policies that still affect France's place in world politics.) It's not the most aesthetically attractive volume (black and white pictures; the type is smallish) but reading about the lives they lived is worth it.

迷人且文笔优美

这本书包括著名的人（艾伦-金斯堡）和不太出名（至少在美国）但重要的人（莫里斯· 顾夫· 德姆维尔）。所有的讣告都很迷人，它告诉读者一些她可能不知道的名人轶事（金斯堡试图冒犯约翰-列侬），以及为什么要了解不那么知名的人（顾夫是1959-69年法国总统戴高乐执政时期的外长，其政策在很大程度上还影响着法国在世界政治格局中的地位）。这本书在美感上不是最吸引人（黑白图片；字体偏小），但阅读他们的人生故事却很值得。

12、 Pompous and inaccurate

Written in the smug, strident style of the magazine, the obits are poorly researched and inaccurate. For example, in the review of Allen Ginsberg, you'll be surprised to learn that the Beats started Flower Power - and I always thought it was the hippies. In another review, we learn that The Big Bopper and Richie Valens were Buddy Holly's band members and that they perished along with him. That will be news to The Crickets who still perform,

The same with Hunter S Thompson - no mention of The Hells Angels novel that propelled him to fame - just a collection of cliches about gonzo journalism. This makes me wonder about the veracity of the magazine as well as the rest of the obits.

In balance, if you want pompous. ill-researched prose then this is the book for you.

言辞浮夸，错漏百出

讣告以该杂志自鸣得意、咄咄逼人的风格撰写，调查研究不充分又错漏百出。例如，在对艾伦-金斯堡的评论中，你会惊讶地得知，垮掉派开创了 "权力归花儿"运动——而我一直认为是嬉皮士。在另一篇评论中，我们了解到The Big Bopper和Richie Valens是巴迪· 霍利的乐队成员（注：见约瑟夫· 沃尔夫森的讣告），他们与他一道消亡。这对仍在演出的蟋蟀乐队来说是个新闻。

亨特-汤普森也是如此——没有提到让他一举成名的小说《地狱天使》——只是收集了一些关于刚左新闻主义的陈词滥调。这让我怀疑该杂志以及其他讣告的真实性。

总而言之，如果你想要读言辞浮夸、调查研究不充分的散文，那么这本书就是你的菜。（哈哈哈，这位读者的评论好犀利啊）