The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise by Martin Prechtel

The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise Reviews

• 
  Aydin Mohseni

  I read this book because of a recommendation from a cherished friend. I loved reading it with a curious and compassionate eye to seeing what this friend had found in this text, in its spirit, and its ideas.
  
  Ultimately, I'm not sure what they got out of it. Perhaps getting to explore new ways of being that felt right for them, or perhaps they were able to extract some valuable rituals and ideas on how to deal with grief? I will have to ask them; as they have always been teaching me about finding the gems in the rubble.
  
  What I found in this book was a great deal of the rubble of dogmatism and stupidity. It revealed an author who (while they may be a truly decent and well-meaning person), in their every phrase, expresses a radical failure of empathy, and of understanding.
  
  Some theses of the book include: That the *only true art* is an expression of grief (so, none of the humbling variety of human experience, except for grief, can constitute a valid subject or spirit of 'true' art); that we ought to isolate young people from their first crushes in order that they might spend the rest of their lives yearning for a sacred romantic ideal, rather than having such ideals crushed against the reality of actual relationships with other human beings (I found this an unattractive violation of both the agency of the young person, and the virtue of honesty in learning about the world); and—over an over again—that the very particular ritual and techniques for dealing with grief that existed in the author's own favorite culture were *the only right way* to do things.
  
  So, the tradition to which the author happened to be exposed contains all and only the true ways of dealing with life—the solutions to all our 'modern woes'. So unoriginal, so unmoving; such an abundance of unexamined bad ideas, and such a dearth of self-knowledge. It reminds me of a warning from Gibran's "Prophet" (1923):
  
  

  Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.' Say not, ' I have found the path of the soul.' Say rather, 'I have met the soul walking upon my path.' For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.”

  
  This is such a basic and essential lesson on the path of learning, that it leaves me skeptical that someone who hasn't learnt it has much of any value to teach, except simply as an example of another confused and stupid soul up on their soap box.
• 
  Andrew

  Though it didn't have the story like Secrets of the Talking Jaguar to carry along the material, this book was every bit as touching and inspiring. Here is a man who gets what it is to be human, especially what it is to be human in a society that has forgotten its place in the web of life. This book is still assimilating in the ways I experience the world. I expect it will be with me for some time to come.
• 
  Indigo Perry

  I wanted to like this book more than I actually liked it. Some of the ideas are very beautiful and will remain with me. Some passages, also, are very beautiful in imagery. But I can't get past the clunkiness of his writing style. Where is his editor? I'm also disappointed in the thoughts he expresses about art and particularly poetry: he seems to miss the point of these offerings as being sacred work in themselves. Writing - and publishing - expressions of grief and praise are most certainly part of my own sacred work.
• 
  Kat Heatherington

  This book is poetic and has interesting things to say about grief, and about the way people engage with ritual practices. However, it's also prescriptive and angry about perceived lacks in western industrialized cultures (which it takes a generalized approach to). The author spends so much time going on about how terrible the modern world is that the book fails in its promise. The parts where he actually talks about grief are beautiful, meaningful and worthwhile, but since over half the text is a polemic about the way western cultures handle grief, the text overall becomes a disappointment.
• 
  Ari

  I found this book both enlightening and even profound in places. I also felt it needed another massive edit.
  
  Negatives: There is a bit of signal-to-noise ratio to get through, having another edit would have made a very big difference. Deep and profound things are being said in sometimes a run-on sentence clunky pattern. Unfortunately, it makes it a bit of a wade to read.
  
  Positives: In particuar I found the author's understanding and explanation of PTSD/Trauma and addiction (as well as some other illnesses) as partial side effect of not having properly mourned (personally and communally) to be uniquely explained and spot on. Yes, there are other determining factors, but where 'science' is lacking, this is most important. We are all connected to the stories and the lives of others. I believe this teaching to be of extreme importance in chaplaincy, which is what caused me to pick up the book in the first place.
  
  Overall, highly recommended. Put aside disbelief at the 'woo-woo' factor, because what this author is teaching is very important.
• 
  Sarah Rasmussen

  This beautiful, poetic book on grief filled my aching heart. Somehow Martin Prechtel’s words will heal you. He will open up a way for you to release all of the grief and sorrow you’ve been bottling up for so long. Thank you Martin, for your words. They have forever changed me. A must read!
• 
  David Jordan

  Yet another title on that long list of books that would never have been on my radar but for the recommendation of a respected friend: and what a surprise this one turned out to be. In short, Prechtel's book is a treatise on grieving properly and grieving well those losses of who or what we love. The basic thesis here is that grief exercised intentionally is a life-giving act of praise. That is, praise for the life that has been lost and praise for the blessing and joy of being alive in a world of beauty that allowed such a relationship (with the grieved) to exist in the first place. The author draws on the grief and mourning rituals of indigenous cultures to craft a philosophy of grieving that is equally attractive for its life-giving emotional blessings and off-putting for its complicated methodology and unfamiliarity with contemporary culture. I was fascinated with the way Prechtel's wisdom resonated with me and how intrigued I was by details of a tradition that was so spectacularly novel and strange. I will be thinking about this book for a long time, as there is very little chance I will quickly forget such a thought-provoking treatment of a universal experience.
• 
  Jessica

  I did not enjoy this book. I read this on recommendation from someone and was sorely disappointed. There were things in it that resonated with me, sure, but there were many other things that didn't and that just seemed way off. I'm all for opposing viewpoints but the disconnection of the writing style made it a really hard read. I feel like if it were edited and it read more smoothly this may have made a big difference. I also agree with a previous review on works of art being a sacred offering of grief in themselves. This is not something I have in common with the author.
• 
  Andrea J Brailsford

  Treasuring what we have lost
  
  This is a great book for anyone struggling with loss. Somewhat poetic in it’s nature it takes one back to their roots, realizes the relationship with all around us and the shallowness that might be prevalent in our lives. We are reminded of the beauty in all that is around us and the praise of that is what makes the loss of it so deep.
• 
  Erica Moore

  Grief support
  
  I was recommended to read this book since I'm coping with PTSD and domestic violence situation which caused major trauma and loss. This poetic book did give me plenty of things to think about in regards to how I'm grieving. I do recommend reading this as well if you're struggling with grief.
• 
  Lawrence

  ht kalia lydgate
• 
  Sophia Ciocca

  Such an important theme, which opened my eyes wide: Grief is Praise. And the act of grieving fully opens our hearts to a deeper, more tender and whole appreciation of everything in this world. I think I intellectually suspected this on some level, but this book brought it home in my felt sense.
  
  There is some beautiful, beautiful prose in here. But there are also many, many run-on sentences, and I had to reread many passages to even parse them. Also, the chapters seem totally distinct and separate, with no clear ordering or narrative thread from one to the next. This book could have used one more edit, I think.
  
  One more critique: Prechtel clearly takes much issue with our current western culture, and the practices of materialism, performance, and monetization. This feels so valid ... but it also comes off as deeply bitter, and not quite integrated. I think it often distracts energetically from his larger point.
  
  Overall, though, I highly recommend this book, especially if you’re grieving. It gave me such a sense of dignity and purpose during this difficult time, reminding me that I am doing the most important work a life could offer, by learning to grieve and live fully. 🤍
• 
  Jade

  “Grief is a form of generosity, which praises life and the people and situations which we have lost. Grief that praises life shows the depth of our appreciation for having been given enough to begin with, to experience both love and loss and that with all the mistreatment we humans give to the earth, we still have this amazing unlikely opportunity to actually speak and bathe in the Divine.” -Martin Prechtel, “The Smell of Rain on Dust”
  
  Living in a society of productivity and consumerism leaves a gaping hole in our collective chests, a sagging vacancy where ancestral wisdom used to reside. Martin Prechtel, a New Mexican Native American by birth and shaman of the Tzutujil Mayan tribe of Guatemala by training, crafts this beautiful offering to help us reclaim our own indigenous wisdom and the central place of grief and praise within it in his newest work, “The Smell of Rain on Dust”. This compact and poignant little book is written for all of us living without awareness of our cultural traditions to guide us through our grief. Connecting us to our divine roots, imagining a world that supported and shaped one another in the tradition of indigenous villages, and reminding us through ritual and celebration how to mourn and grieve as we praise what we loved, Prechtel’s magic diffuses much-needed wisdom and wit through every page.
  
  This book is a must-read for death workers who support the grieving, all those who take part in burying and honoring our dead, and any one of us who may feel like our grief is more than what is socially acceptable in our world today.
  
  “Beautifully written and wise … precious and life-sustaining. Read carefully, and listen deeply.” -Mary Oliver
• 
  Fern

  Ok, first off, this book is incredibly healing and absolutely beautiful, comforting to read and expansive. I’ve been able to re-think so much about grief, loss, and… all of material reality will be reading this book. I know that sounds like a complete over-statement but truly, as an ecologically-informed set of lessons, this one is truly up there. It’s helped me shift years of depression and be at peace with daily things that upset me. My issue is that Prechtel doesn’t really ever pause and ask if these are his cultures to share, his cultural wisdom to impart. I’m curious how people *from* these cultures would react reading this book. There’s so much skimming of cultural lessons. He captures a really gorgeous essence of so many of these lessons, but I ultimately feel a little jaded and concerned about the cultural exploitation. How is he giving back to these cultures? Where is all the money from his book sales going? But, honestly, just read this book, and consider showing up to something (anything, really) I’m solidarity with indigenous people.
• 
  Maris Harmon

  Perhaps the most life changing book I have read. That is a cliché statement, and I am using it nonetheless. I felt compelled to write a review because while I feel empathy for the discontent inside everyone moaning in the reviews, I do not want their darkness - the well of stuckness and numbness they can't yet escape - to deter you from reading this book. I feel no defense for our modern culture and its illnesses, and how it makes all of us ill. And so I did not feel bristled when he points out these truths. In order to praise we must grieve. In order to grieve we must praise. In order to remember our spirits, we turn to teachers like Martin who guide us with a flickering light.
• 
  Melissa

  Coleman Barks recommends Martin Prechtel’s work in glowing, sensuous terms. “I get so excited reading it, I cannot stay in one place,” the Rumi translator raves. I was instead so riveted that I was stuck to my seat, grateful for such a heartfelt, wise description of grief and how we might approach it despite living in a society that values what it considers rational. I wish I’d been able to grieve my mother and first husband this way. I wish we’d all open our hearts and souls and let the real truth be known.
• 
  Bénédicte Rousseau

  This is a book about the undigested grief of the world, which has turned into modern violence and spiritual forgetfulness, and its counterpart, i.e. praise and beauty. It's a magnificent thing to witness how grief (not to be mistaken with sorrow and depression) turns into beauty and life when properly held and allowed to be expressed in the ways wise indigenous elders knew. It's an essential book to understand the true meaning of grieving and start orienting in our modern world. Warmly recommended.
• 
  Tiffany

  I loved this piece. My mom died 3 months ago and there was so much about this book that spoke to my heart on a very deep level. The parts about how people are disconnected from mourning really resonated because of how many times others were not able to have compassion or understanding of my grief. And I listened to it on audible, read by the author. So I think that made a huge impact on how the messages came through.
• 
  Molly Smith

  First time I’ve taken a highlighter to a book in a long time. I read this book in 36 hours and was constantly finding myself re-reading passages because the words held so much power. Whether you have lost a parent, friend, grandparent, or a place of being…. This book takes what we think of grieving and turns it upside down to make it into something beautiful. Grief and Praise go hand in hand. Something I’ve never thought to consider.
• 
  Holly Marie St. Pierre

  Enlightening and profound
  
  Sometimes the authors sentence structure and wordiness complicates or hides the message.
  However, I loved and appreciated the author’s wisdom regarding the creative or destructive power of grief properly experienced or squelched. He accurately explains the deep spiritual sickness in our culture due to our misunderstanding and avoidance of grief.
  
• 
  Michelle

  This fed parts of me that I think had gone hungry since my earliest, tenderest losses.
  I listened to this read by the author and it’s hard to imagine not hearing it in his voice, not hearing the instruction and the wry chastisement that way. Perhaps people not connecting with it were missing out on that.
• 
  Claire Gallant

  YIKES. Can we talk about how the author is radically out of touch with their personal Privilege? For instance, their recommended Grief Ritual involves a “stretch of sea coast with no people”. The author insists that said ritual is “totally doable by the modern person” … Ahem, what? In the United States, only the privileged, wealthy few have the money to take themselves to such a place.
• 
  Gail Nyoka

  A profound look at the role that grief plays in life, and what it means when grief is denied, not just on a personal, but societal level.
  
  The chapter "The Black Hole of Ungrieved War" gives fresh insight into the problem of US society and its many damaged war veterans.
• 
  Johanna DeBiase

  So beautifully written. Made me think of grief differently, as a part of life to be embraced not feared. It also made me grieve for the lack of tribal community that would know what to do when we grieve loss. Our white American secular culture is sadly lost.