The author, Louise Harmon, is a law professor in Huntington, New York. The book exposes the process by which death left the geography of the dying person's home and was transported to the hospital . With this shift in the place in which people died there was a corresponding explosion in technologies available to prolong life. Thus, a long, tedious battle against the legal system and against death itself supplanted the traditional deathwatch or vigil. Fragments does an excellent job of documenting these changes in the dying process and their deleterious effects on our culture.
Fragments is written in an unusual way, perhaps common to law texts.
Whenever the author wants to take a rabbit trail , she includes a note with commentary at the bottom of the page. She also includes copious footnotes. The commentary and footnotes alone are worth the price of the book. Her discursive thoughts and ramblings are fascinating. She uses good metaphors that help the reader understand and follow her reasoning.