3.35 avg rating — 17 ratings

"On no account should the reader let all this punning and silliness lull him or her into the sense that this is a lighthearted story. Miller keeps you off-footed by mixing a sort of childlike storytelling—including many references to fairy tales and nursery rhymes—with extremely adult themes, not limited to premature death. Many of the characters speak with an openness and innocence that would not seem out of place in The Hundred Acre Wood. Yet after establishing an almost nursery-rhyme cadence and silliness, Miller drops in deep observations about war, child abuse, inequality, and a great deal of social, political, historical, and economic commentary. But the heart of the book is an exploration of the contours of grief, particularly grief over the deaths of children. As the author puns in an afterword, Death And Other Taxes is a “grave allegory.”"