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Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
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An oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For 2,000 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.
- Sales Rank: #813210 in Books
- Published on: 2003-09-01
- Formats: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 7
- Dimensions: 5.70" h x 1.00" w x 5.20" l, .53 pounds
- Running time: 8 Hours
- Binding: Audio CD
From Publishers Weekly
"Uproariously funny" doesn't seem a likely description for a book on cadavers. However, Roach, a Salon and Reader's Digest columnist, has done the nearly impossible and written a book as informative and respectful as it is irreverent and witty. From her opening lines ("The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back"), it is clear that she's taking a unique approach to issues surrounding death. Roach delves into the many productive uses to which cadavers have been put, from medical experimentation to applications in transportation safety research (in a chapter archly called "Dead Man Driving") to work by forensic scientists quantifying rates of decay under a wide array of bizarre circumstances. There are also chapters on cannibalism, including an aside on dumplings allegedly filled with human remains from a Chinese crematorium, methods of disposal (burial, cremation, composting) and "beating-heart" cadavers used in organ transplants. Roach has a fabulous eye and a wonderful voice as she describes such macabre situations as a plastic surgery seminar with doctors practicing face-lifts on decapitated human heads and her trip to China in search of the cannibalistic dumpling makers. Even Roach's digressions and footnotes are captivating, helping to make the book impossible to put down.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Those curious or brave enough to find out what really happens to a body that is donated to the scientific community can do so with this book. Dissection in medical anatomy classes is about the least bizarre of the purposes that science has devised. Mostly dealing with such contemporary uses such as stand-ins for crash-test dummies, Roach also pulls together considerable historical and background information. Bodies are divided into types, including "beating-heart" cadavers for organ transplants, and individual parts-leg and foot segments, for example, are used to test footwear for the effects of exploding land mines. Just as the nonemotional, fact-by-fact descriptions may be getting to be a bit too much, Roach swings into macabre humor. In some cases, it is needed to restore perspective or aid in understanding both what the procedures are accomplishing and what it is hoped will be learned. In all cases, the comic relief welcomes readers back to the world of the living. For those who are interested in the fields of medicine or forensics and are aware of some of the procedures, this book makes excellent reading.
Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Not grisly but inspiring, this work considers the many valuable scientific uses of the body after death. Drawn from the author's popular Salon column.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Morbid yet entertaining
By Marti
Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers is an example of a morbid topic turned into a page turning and ironically uplifting read. Stiff is very informative on the history and uses of cadavers while also providing entertainment through Roach’s unique style of writing. Additionally, the book contains numerous gory stories about blood and death, but the real meat of the book is in Roach’s main point of the history and uses of cadavers. She uses real examples of scientists and researchers performing horrific operations on human remains in order to learn the anatomy of our complex species. The chapters are deliberate and in depth and they address a wide range of topics from impact studies for car safety to human composting as a new means of disposal. Roach is additionally accommodating enough to include informative footnotes in places where the subject deviates from common knowledge. One of the best things about this book, besides just the mere content, is the witty style in which Roach employs. She seamlessly integrates jokes and humor into her writing of dead people without being the least bit disrespectful, in my opinion. To make its case, Stiff appeals to both medical interests in the surgeries described and to historical ones in its ample amount of sources on how humans first discovered how our anatomy was designed. The prominence of death in the book however does not lower its accomplishments by any means. If anything, death and dying opens up a new conversation of what to do after we die. The only piece of cautionary advice I have is that certain parts are a bit too bloody and gory, which may lead to sensitive readers not being able to read every page. To oversimplify, Stiff is one of a kind and can be thoroughly enjoyed no matter what medical expertise one has. While prior knowing of the book’s anatomy knowledge is useful in understanding the kind of value it has, it can be advantageous for a multitude of audiences.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Funny, thoughtful, profound, and surprisingly enjoyable for a book about dead bodies
By Josh Mauthe
Having read Mary Roach’s newest book, Grunt, in which she talks about the science of keeping soldiers alive, I decided to read her first one, Stiff, for two reasons. One was to see how much she’d changed as an author, but two – and the bigger reason – was a fascination with the subject. Stiff‘s subtitle is The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, and the book is about exactly that: what happens to our remains after we die? Like she did with Grunt (and, I’m presuming, all of her books), Roach divides the book into independent chapters, each focusing on different aspects. There’s the bodies that end up in mortuary schools, as well as those that end up dissected by medical students. There are cadavers used as crash testers, those that end up at the Body Farm (where decay is studied, among other things), those that are used to help understand airplane crashes…and those that were used to understand what happened to Jesus and others who were crucified. And there’s much more to be found here, including bodies as compost, as art, and more.
It’s a fascinating subject, and one that put Roach on the map – and having read the book, it’s not hard to see why. Done wrongly, the book could seem insensitive, ghoulish, or just depressing. But Roach celebrates these cadavers, reminding the reader just how much has been gained from this research and just how important these bodies have been to not only medicine, but to our society as a whole. At the same time, she never shies away from the discomfort people feel; indeed, one of the most compelling threads in each chapter is discussing with the various people she meets how they manage to maintain a proper emotional balance when they’re working with the dead all the time.
Roach is more of a presence in Stiff than she is in Grunt; it feels like more of a first book, and something she might grow away from as she went. But that also feels like a key part of why the book works; after all, death is a fundamentally personal event, and there’s little way to read Stiff and not spend time thinking about what you would want done with your own remains, be it cremation, burial, donation, or more. And Roach builds her own debate into the book, concluding the book with a chapter that finds her pondering what to do with her own remains, having done all these studies and researches into our possible fates.
But lest that sound too heavy, Stiff is every bit as engaging and fun as you would hope from Roach’s reputation. Her digressive footnotes and odd asides are still evident, her willingness to ask questions no less charming, and her ability to bring a light tone to even heavy subject matters no less welcome. More than that, she finds depth and thoughtfulness to discuss beyond what you would expect, to the point where you get the impression that she could write a whole second book about bodies and never run out of things to say. That she does all this while being incredibly informative, demonstrating a gift for conveying complex things quickly, and managing to even tell stories, is just testament to her skills as a writer, and the deservedness of her reputation.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
My favorite book, ever.
By David
This is my favorite book ever. Mary Roach is a fantastic writer who sees the humor in everything, including cadavers, and delivers it like smooth butter. She love exploring science, history, and the human experience, and loves sharing it with the reader. It was a very inspiring book for me going through anatomy and physiology, and how much respect and generosity go towards anatomy education. If there was anything that could change someone’s mind about the medical field, this book would be it.
For readers not in the medical/anatomy field, this could be considered a graphic book. The author doesn't try and hide it, but doesn't go out of her way to gross the reader out, however there are a few situations that she describes that could gross someone out. In fact, when you get past (some of) the gory details, her humor is the perfect shade of darkness that makes you feel really good about being a human. Like I said earlier, this book conveys and really inspires how much respect in the medical education community people give cadavers, and could potentially encourage someone to donate their body for science.
Bonk, Spook, and Packing for Mars are all good reads and of similar mood for sex, the afterlife, and space, respectively. Mary brings the same 'light-dark' humor in the deceased, and really makes you feel good about being a human in the 21st century.
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