Product Description
"One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year....Gross, educational, and unexpectedly sidesplitting."—Entertainment Weekly Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way. In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries—from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting. In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.
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 Weird, yet Good. ( csurf401 )
I heard a lot about this book. I thought the title really caught my eye and the content really attracted me out of curiousity. Once I started reading, I could not put it down. It really got you thinking about other subjects not talked about much and made you wonder about yourself. IT really raised many questions and left some thoughts open ended. I enjoyed reading this book because it was easy to understand and made you wonder about these careers that deal with the cadavers. I recommend this book for the curious minded.
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 First Half Good, Last Half Off Topic ( cfarmer50 )
The first half of the book is very interesting. It covers a variety of situations that human cadavers are used in science and medicine. The last half of the book goes off-topic about historical uses of cadavers (mummies, etc) to just weird (folk medicine).
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 Cadaver Insight
Stiff is a great read - funny, insightful, and well-written. Roach just pulls you along from one chapter to the next - it is so hard to put down.
The details and descriptions of what is done to corpses, and has been done to them historically, are fascinating. I would have given it 5 stars if I were able to talk about any of this book with my husband or circle of friends. Without the context of the book the people around me think any details I attempt to discuss with them are horrendously gruesome.
The inevitability of every body's decay - no matter what method of burial (or other) is chosen - was definite food for thought for me.
It's not the author's fault that time has marched on since she wrote the book, but I did find the info about Body Wars at the end outdated (and her feelings that it would never be welcome in North America haven't rung true).
Great book, great read, so INTERESTING.
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Fascinating Read! Well Researched and Goes into Great Detail of Options for Those Thinking of Donating Their Corpse to Science! ( jamesnsimpson )
I found this book to be really interesting. Obviously I'd thought of organ donation before but had never really even thought about the other valuable uses my corpse could have to society. I've learnt a lot from this book, even about what happens to the human body in general if you just stick it in the ground. I think this book is a good thing for those who want their body to go down one of these community beneficial paths when they no longer can use it themselves, to give to their relatives who will be ultimately giving the go ahead, so they can understand the answer of why and more likely respect your wishes. It's also just a fascinating read for those who wonder exactly what happens to a corpse as it decomposes? How do airline investigators use bodies to find out if there was an explosion and not just the burning of the ocean waterskin from examining the corpses? What do the people who use these bodies for their own surgical educational requirements or as researchers think of the corpses? How do corpses and parts of them help prevent injuries and deaths in the automobile industry?
There's just so much information in here, you wouldn't have come across before unless you've researched it before in textbooks and journals. That's the thing about this book, the style is well written for your everyday person, it's not textbooky or medical journally in style. In fact as the chapters go on, Mary roach seems to increase the amount of humour in the footnotes and so on. It's a non fiction adventure that reads like a fiction novel, like in the first chapter (about heads for surgical training) , where she had her arch nemesis the head lopper lady who was giving her dirty looks and on the phone trying to get rid of her. That sort of stuff being included just made the tale that much more readable, relatable and put you in the room amongst the action.
You won't necessarily agree with the author's opinions, I certainly don't agree with her doing what the family members want and not the deceased wishes but she does present her arguments well for her opinions. Nor is the writer a comedian so you're not going to falling out of your chair laughing, think normal journalist humour when you see it on TV or in print, it's like that.
There are some areas of the death industry that aren't delved into much or at all such as what goes on in a normal funeral situation. A few months ago I read a funeral industry set fiction novel called Weepin' Willie which is a very good book but also gives a fair amount of history and interesting facts as told by the mortician (Willie hence the title) on the funeral industry and dealing with dead bodies. If you like this book, you'll enjoy that one as well!
This book never really went into if any of these options organise taking your corpse for free or even pay your estate for it. Funerals are expensive, if they did this would increase participants purely for the financial relief to their families. I would think the plastic surgery industry should (with the exception of severe burns reconstruction and things like this). I'd certainly consider it if money went to people in my Will by doing so, but wouldn't just to benefit some ageing or vain person who wants to look better or younger.
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Could not put it down! ( westby12 )
This books was so fascinating and had me laughing out loud. I have been recommending it to everyone. It's true that you probably don't want to read it while you are eating, but I think it is fantastic. Read it!
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