Lori Erickson is a pastor, as well as a travel writer focused on the spiritual. Death threw her for a loop when her brother died suddenly and her mom had to be placed in dementia-care full time.  In an attempt to understand death in different cultures and clear her heart, Erickson put together a part travel guide and part spiritual memoir to explore how the rest of the world deals with Death. From Mayan Temples, to Dia de Muertos, to Maori settlements, and graveyards, each culture copes with death and mortality a different way.

Erickson has a cheerful voice that is both entertaining and careful not to be too preachy. While she is an Episcopal deacon, Near the Exit does not feel like you're having religion thrown in your face and is easily digestible for whatever you believe. Her focus is on love, acceptance, and how the world understands death. 

Near the Exit is available from Westminster Knox Press now.

Was really pleased to read this book. When I 1st started it, I was like oh Lord here we go again another "religious book". That wasn't the case at all. The way that Lori Erickson explores, life and life after death is amazing. It really makes you sit there and wonder. What does happen after we die? Definitely recommend. This is my honest opinion.

Rating 4

So I am fascinated with books that explore the edges of human experience, including the border of life and death. I expect I'll someday visit that place and make my own immigration, and I am interested to learn from those travelers who have gone before me.

These books often share a certain somber, respectful, treading-on-holy-ground tone that is remarkable absent here. Erickson is wholly funny and irreverent, often at her own expense, never at the cruel expense of others. And she is very much the wide-eyed traveler herself, literally as well as metaphorically.

She makes a great travel companion and this is a worthwhile book. I expect it's something of a mood read and recommend picking it up when it appeals. I found her accounts of keeping her mom company in a care facility to be particularly poignant (though not depressing).

With thanks to Westminster John Knox Publishers and to NetGalley for the ARC.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, Westminster John Knox Press and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Ms. Erickson has written a thoughtful look at how different cultures deal and celebrate death and dying. It's an interesting take, more travelogue than grief self help.

I found it interesting that a deacon would go to such lengths to better understand our passing from this life to the next.

4 out of 5 stars. Recommended reading.

I thought this book would be sad, but it's actually very hopeful. The way Lori Erickson weaves her personal losses together with the cultural surroundings of death is extremely profound. Despite the clear opportunity for this book to take a religious/spiritual turn (especially being written by a deacon), it stayed pretty secular, which makes it super accessible to everyone.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Thanks NetGalley!

The author has a background of a deacon, but the book isn't religious at all. The book absolutely made me wonder what happens after we die.
The book touches upon life/death/afterlife tradidiotns in a variety of places.

informative and interesting

I enjoyed this so much! I haven't yet read any Caitlin Doughty yet, despite being on my TBR forever. This seems like a book in the same vein, but this author writes with a background as an Episcopal deacon which I LOVED. This was not a religous or spiritual book but there is an undercurrent of wondering and belief that runs through this as I, much like the author, am pretty sure what I believe happens when we make our final exit...but who can say for sure? I enjoyed learning about many different death and life and afterlife traditions and also seeing them through the author's eyes as she deals with her own mother's end of life experiences in long term care with dementia.

As a death activist and death historian, I knew I’d love this book. Admittedly, I was the tiniest bit wary because it sounds very similar to Caitlin Doughty’s From Here to Eternity, and while I was lookin get forward to reading someone else’s perspective, I wasn’t sure I’d learn anything new about some of the places where both Lori Erickson and Caitlin went. However, I couldn’t be more pleased. There are a few overlaps of places mentioned or visited, but Near the Exit isn’t a copy or anything close to From Here to Eternity. Written from the point of view of an Episcopalian deacon, the reader is introduced to a truly unique point of view of death and other cultures’ perceptions of death. Even better, Lori Erickson is a hell of a writer. She’s definitely found her calling, and it shows in the quality of her work.

Highly recommend. Can’t recommend enough. And I look so forward to hunting down more of Lori Erickson’s work!