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Mary Roach: Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers

mehastings

mehastings

Active Member
It would seem that I'm on a kick of light non-fiction these days, and this is my latest purchase. I'm about thirty pages in, and I'm already hooked. Roach's amusing tone makes even a plastic surgery refresher (where doctors practice on disembodies heads) interesting. I can't wait for the opportunity to get a little further in. I know that others here have read this book, so I thought I'd see if I could drum up interest in a discussion.

The Barnes & Noble Review from Discover Great New Writers
Okay, you're thinking, this must be some kind of a joke. A humorous book about cadavers? Yup, and it works. Mary Roach takes the age-old question, "What happens to us after we die?" quite literally. And in Stiff, she explores the "lives" of human cadavers from the time of the ancient Egyptians all the way up to current campaigns for human composting. Along the way, she recounts with morbidly infectious glee how dead bodies are used for research ranging from car safety and plastic surgery (you'll cancel your next collagen injection after reading this!), to the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin.

Impossible (and irreverent) as it may sound, Roach has written a book about corpses that's both lively and fresh. She traveled around the globe to conduct her forensic investigations, and her findings are wryly intelligent. While the myriad uses for cadavers recounted are often graphic, Roach imbues her subject with a sense of dignity, choosing to emphasize the oddly noble purposes corpses serve, from organ donation to lifesaving medical research. Readers will come away convinced of the enormous debt that we, the living, owe to the study of the remains of the dead. And while it may not offer the answer to the ancient mystery we were hoping for, Stiff offers a strange sort of comfort in the knowledge that, in a sense, death isn't necessarily the end.
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I read this book the summer before I started medical school (and the required cadaver anatomy lab) to get a feel for what awaits those who donate their bodies to medicine. I found the book extremely entertaining and was not at all surprised when the light-hearted attitude which Roach has when approaching such a delicate subject was the prevailing mood in our anatomy lab after only about a week or so!
 
One minor nitpick: the book's title is The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. With that said, I really enjoyed Stiff. I loved the author's wry sense of humor and the footnotes were hysterical. She published another book about death called Spook, only this time she wrote about the afterlife.
 
Anamnesis said:
One minor nitpick: the book's title is The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. With that said, I really enjoyed Stiff. I loved the author's wry sense of humor and the footnotes were hysterical. She published another book about death called Spook, only this time she wrote about the afterlife.
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You're right. It is. I've fixed it.

Have you read Spook? I'm almost done with Stiff, and although I'm enjoying it, I can't help but wonder if Spook would be something I'd be more interested in.
 
I have yet to read Spook. It sounds promising but the mixed (not horrible as eyez would have you believe) reviews didn't make me want to go out and buy a copy. From what I've read of both professional and reader reviews, it's funny and witty but not as "deep" as Stiff.
 
Stiff was a great book, although I got some weird looks reading it on the the plane. Thought it was a very insightful and humourous look into what happens to corpses. Very CSI like - which if you are into, I recomment Every Contact Leaves A Trace. Can't remember the author right now, but gives true stories and quotes from real CSIs'. Interesting stuff...
 
I haven't read Stiff yet, but it's on my short list. I have read Spook however, and it was very good. It covered everything you could think of and more. I highly recommend it.
 
Not read Stiff but I guess if you like that kind of thing you should check out Death's Acre by Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson. It's about the almost legendary body farm.
 
Mary Roach: Stiff

This is a reprint of my review of Stiff by Mary Roach. The original can be found at Letters on Pages (address in my signature)!

Title: Stiff
Author: Mary Roach
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (2004)

A while ago I read the book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach on a recommendation by my sister. A small part of me thought, "gross." But most of me thought, "gross...awesome...and interesting." So I hit up the library and grabbed the book. Now, you are probably thinking that I am disgusting and morbid...which actually, might be true. But that doesn't change the fact that Stiff is REALLY REALLY interesting. Not only is the reporting really well done, but the writing is hilarious. The humor in the book is really what made it so good. At the same time, the humor allows you to enjoy the book instead of feeling like a creep for reading about dead people.

In this book Roach takes a look at the various things that can happen to a human body after it is donated to science. Roach takes a hands-on approach to writing and asks good questions. She sits in with a class of students practicing surgery. She visits a transportation safety location that uses cadavers as crash test dummies. She visits the Body Farm in Knoxville where they study different variables for forensic science (like seeing what happens when you leave a cadaver half buried in snow). There are a lot of things that can be done with your body after you pass!

While the book seems like it could be pretty morbid and inappropriate, Roach does a spectacular job of reporting, keeping it interesting, and keeping it light. I highly recommend Stiff, along with Roach's other books!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5
 
Mary Roach- Stiff :Review

And you thought death was boring!

What do you want to do with your death? Who knew we would still have such a wide variety of career choices? In Stiff, Mary Roach educates us on all the possibilities.

Interested in having plastic surgery? It costs the cadaver nothing!

Ever wanted to be a car crash test dummy? It’s not too late!

Join law enforcement and commune with nature working on the infamous body farm.

Speaking of nature, how about giving back to the environment as compost? You can do it! No previous experience required!

All these and many more options await you in Stiff.
Written in a conversational tone for the layperson, Roach asks all the questions you would want to ask but would feel stupid doing so. She asks no matter how silly and, yes, in the end this makes for a very entertaining read.
 
Sorry about that, Anamnesis. I'm very new here and it didn't even occur to me that I should search the threads first. I'm not sure that I still wouldn't have started a new one though, since, in this case, it's a review I was posting.

But, by all means, if anyone knows how to merge the two threads, I won't be insulted.

Also, not sure how all the words in my post title got turned all topsy turvy?
 
nporter said:
Sorry about that, Anamnesis. I'm very new here and it didn't even occur to me that I should search the threads first. I'm not sure that I still wouldn't have started a new one though, since, in this case, it's a review I was posting.

But, by all means, if anyone knows how to merge the two threads, I won't be insulted.

Also, not sure how all the words in my post title got turned all topsy turvy?
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Welcome :flowers:

You may want to check out the blog section of the forum. That's where a lot of us write our reviews.

I read Stiff last year and enjoyed it immensely. I've also read Spooked, which was fun but not as great as Stiff.
 
nporter said:
Sorry about that, Anamnesis. I'm very new here and it didn't even occur to me that I should search the threads first. I'm not sure that I still wouldn't have started a new one though, since, in this case, it's a review I was posting.

But, by all means, if anyone knows how to merge the two threads, I won't be insulted.

Also, not sure how all the words in my post title got turned all topsy turvy?
Click to expand...

No problem :). It usually happens quite a bit so don't worry.
Welcome to the board, btw.
 
I read Stiff a few years ago, and loved it. It was so freaking funny - completely the opposite of what I expected. :lol:
 
I loved that book. It was interesting and funny, and very humbling at the same time. I read it about 3 years ago and then foolishly enough lent it to someone who did't return it.
 
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