Death is a many splendored thing. And complicated. The issues around it touch on mythology, religion, rites, science, technology, biology, history, psychology, chemistry, stupidity, fossil fuels, body-snatching, racism, buzzards, Congress, coral, hell money, catacombs, poetry, trees, and the deep blue sea.Glenn Alan Cheney’s unusual gathering of facts and curiosities regarding death and burial is fascinating…and not nearly as morbid as one might expect. Death happens, and The Merry Burial Compendium is something to read while waiting.