Sam Roberts Are They Dead Yet?: The Art of the Obit

提起讣告，多数人的固有印象是冰冷、刻板、程式化的公文，是罗列生卒年份、身份头衔、生平功绩的制式文本，只为宣告生命落幕、完成盖棺定论。但《纽约时报》资深讣告记者山姆·罗伯茨在《Are They Dead Yet?: The Art of the Obit》一书中，彻底撕碎了这种刻板认知。他以数十年深耕讣告写作的行业经验、百余位逝者的人生样本，搭配辛辣幽默的笔触与细腻深刻的观察，将枯燥的殡葬文书，升华为一门记录生命、审视时代、对抗遗忘的独特艺术，让读者看见死亡叙事背后，最鲜活、最真实的人间百态。

全书最核心的突破，是重构了讣告的写作内核与价值意义。罗伯茨直言，优质的讣告从来不是流水账式的人生履历堆砌，更不是完美无瑕的人物赞歌。书中揭秘了《纽约时报》独特的“预写讣告”机制——报社常年储备两千余篇实时更新的预写稿件，随时应对名人离世突发新闻，这一行业幕后细节，让大众首次窥见讣告写作的专业性与严谨性。而比流程更珍贵的，是作者坚守的写作准则：不神化伟人、不轻视凡人、不回避瑕疵。

这本书的独特魅力，在于实现了“沉重议题的轻盈表达”。死亡本是肃穆、悲伤的终极命题，但罗伯茨以极具松弛感的幽默文笔、从业多年的趣味轶事、行业圈内的鲜活八卦，消解了死亡的压抑感。全书没有刻意煽情的文字，没有空洞的人生说教，在一桩桩逝者的人生故事、一次次写作取舍的抉择中，自然传递出对生命、记忆与时间的深刻思考。时而戏谑通透，时而温柔厚重，读来轻松治愈，却又余味悠长。

书名：Are They Dead Yet?: The Art of the Obit

作者：Sam Roberts

简介："Mordantly wonderful." —CARL HIAASEN
"I almost died laughing." —ROZ CHAST
"My own departure would not be so bad if only Mr. Roberts could write the obit!" —KAI BIRD

From celebrated New York Times obituarist Sam Roberts, the art of the obit: Who we remember, how we forget, and where we find the true meaning in a life.

After nearly a decade behind the obituaries desk at the paper of record, Roberts knows obits aren't really about deaths. In fact, they usually only mention dying once. Over the course of the nearly 1,500 obituaries he has written throughout his career, he has instead come to understand that they're about distilling an entire life lived-for someone whose name he may have learned that morning.

In Are They Dead Yet?, Roberts explores the major questions that arise from the task of producing a succinct yet record-defining account of a life. Who deserves an obituary, and how do we decide who gets one? How does an obituarist choose what to include-and to omit? What happens when embarrassing information, like a crime, affair, or wonky cause of death, makes itself known? What makes a legacy, a claim to fame? And what happens when that claim to fame, so important in death, isn't what mattered in life at all?

With wit, wisdom, and behind-the-scenes intrigue, Roberts examines the practice of writing advance obituaries, of which there are more than 2,000 on hold and regularly updated at the New York Times, America's relationship to death in the wake of 9/11 and the pandemic, classic euphemistic language, and more. Through it all, Roberts brings his humor, shrewdness, and experience to prove what he has learned from a long career in death: There's no such thing as an ordinary life.