Book Review

I finally finished reading Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die: or (the eschatology of bluegrass) by David Crowder and Mike Hogan. I got the book for Christmas from Mom and Dad and couldn't wait to dive in. It seems strange to say that I was eager to start reading a book about death, but Crowder's writing is always interesting and I also knew that this book would deal, at least in part, with the death of his friend and pastor, Kyle Lake, which I had followed closely via several news outlets and Crowder's own writings online.

The main topics of discussion in the book were death (sprinkled throughout), the history of the soul (via the history of philosophy) and the history of bluegrass (in all its musicological glory). Sprinkled throughout was color commentary by the authors and discussions between the authors in the form of instant messages.

An interesting addition to a book of this type was the inclusion of story segments that served as interspersed parable about the universality of death. What I mean is that each of us are touched by death (either that of someone we know or the fear of our own) and there is an odd sort of comfort in that fact.

While the book doesn't go into great depth on the philosophical or musicological, it does serve as a primer for those that are interested in these topics without getting bogged down in a more academic approach. The more personal sections of the book also allow the reader to enter into the grief of the authors. More than once, something that was said about their mourning of a friend or family member touched on a memory of loss for me which allowed me to enter into their story in a communal way that only death can.

I would recommend this book to pretty much anybody, but especially to Crowder fans and those unafraid of creative communication around a common theme.