Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Rating:
Summary: "Death. It doesn't have to be boring."
Review: "Death. It doesn't have to be boring." That is the theme of Mary Roach's informative book "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers." Mary Roach travels through history and interviews morticians and medical school students in anatomy class to get the low down on what happens to human bodies after they die and how they have been and are currently used for research. The book is extremely informative and actually made me more comfortable with death, which of course is not to say that there aren't parts that can make you extremely queasy, lol.

Roach early on establishes that she intends to be as respectful as possible and does succeed in that. Like the anatomy students she discusses, she focuses on the science of the cadaver while at the same time taking time to acknowledge the emotional and spiritual aspect in a tasteful manner.

Among subjects discussed are the decomposition of cadavers, forensic studies of cadavers via insect lifespan, the history of autopsies and grave robbery and alternatives to burial like the Promessa process.

I do agree with a previous reviewer who said that the book starts off stronger than it finishes. It sort of runs out of steam when it starts on cannibalism in Chinese history. But overall I think it's a great book and definitely something you should read.

Rating:
Summary: thoroughly entertaining
Review: This was one of the most innovative nonfiction subjects I ever saw turned into a book, and I really enjoyed it. Roach goes above and beyond the standard post-life activities you might expect, touching on everything from the particulars of organ donation to the processing and eating of mummies -- with a few pit-stops through topics such as corpse-derived medicines, embalming, decomposition and test-crash-dead-people.

The book is composed with a deft touch that skillfully works humor into even the most humorless subject, yet never manages to topple into disrespect for the dearly departed.

As someone who writes ghost stories (which often begin as murder mysteries), I'm definitely planning to keep this around for reference purposes. It's good stuff ... but you may want to think twice before reading some chapters over lunch.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing To The End
Review: Mary Roach has taken it upon herself to research the history of cadaver research, which can't have been a barrel of laughs. Nevertheless, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is a concise, intensely readable, frequently hilarious survey of the strange uses to which human bodies are put.

"A Head is a Terrible Thing to Waste" follows the author as she observes a group of surgeons giving face-lifts to decapitated heads. Sounds like a frivolous use for a body donated "to science," but plastic surgeons need to practice somewhere, and a corpse can't sue over a botched nose job. Roach points out that "heads aren't cut off out of ghoulishness. They are cut off so that someone else can make use of the other pieces: arms, legs, organs." And indeed, the unembalmed heads are treated respectfully, covered with cloths before and after the seminar; nobody's making impromptu hand puppets or throwing eyeballs around. They're here to learn, and the heads, though discomfiting, are an invaluable aid.

"Crimes of Anatomy" explores the history of body-snatching. Historically, the religious believed that the physical body was necessary for resurrection, so people weren't too eager to hand over their ticket to heaven; for this reason, dissection was sometimes tacked on to a death sentence for particularly heinous crimes. Enterprising anatomists worked around the lack of donors by nabbing corpses out of graves, or hiring someone (who couldn't possibly have been paid enough) to do it for them. French anatomists had it easier, as the unclaimed bodies of those who died in city hospitals were up for grabs. Now that human anatomy is understood and exhaustively documented, whole-body dissection is being phased out; some schools are switching over to computer simulations. Still, this doesn't mean that the need for donated bodies has been eliminated.

"Life After Death," one of my favorite chapters, explores the University of Tennessee Medical Center's body farm, where cadavers are dumped in a variety of positions and settings and carefully monitored. The objective is to learn more about the process of human decay and various factors affecting it; ultimately, this information can be used, among other things, to assist in solving crimes. There's a whirlwind tour of the decaying process, followed by an equally graphic description of modern-day embalming.

Other chapters explore the use of human crash test dummies to develop safer automobiles; forensic analysis of human remains to help determine how accidents happened (as with TWA Flight 800); and the military applications of human remains for bullet and bomb testing. More colorful and gruesome are the stories on so-called "scientists" who used cadavers to prove the Shroud of Turin's authenticity; experiments on consciousness after decapitation and whole-head grafts; and the history of medicinal cannibalism. For fellow pragmatists, there are new options for corpse disposal; a pioneering Swede is working on human composting, and then there's "tissue digestion," which handily reduces your body to a small amount of sterile, flushable liquid.

I find all this stuff fascinating, and Roach takes pains to keep it entertaining; she's aware of the absurdity and downright grossness of her topic, and presents the humor in all its reeking, rotting glory. Which is not to say that she makes jokes at the cadavers' expense; on the contrary, the author clearly has great respect for those who selflessly donate their bodies for medical advancement, and, without exception, so do the professionals of various fields with whom she meets. At UCSF, medical students hold a memorial service for their cadavers (they're assigned one each, and keep it all year long), just like a real one; floral arrangements are brought in, and students give speeches commemorating their cadavers, which are often named ("Not like `Beef Jerky.' Real names," explains one student). If nothing else, Stiff is a lively, informative account of cadaver research; but if it convinces people to donate their bodies to science, it will have served an even better purpose. Either way, you need to read this book before you die. Pick up a copy! Along with this book, another entertaining Amazon quick-pick I highly recommend is THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez.



Rating:
Summary: Textbooks should be like this.
Review: This is a book about the factual side of an emotional subject and it is beautifully done. I zoomed through it faster than fiction. And boy was I the highlight of several cocktail parties, as I tossed out descriptions of going through a windshield. A great book.

Rating:
Summary: The funniest, educational, most gut wrenching book on death!
Review: "Life contains these things: leakage and wickage and discharge, pus and snot and slime and gleet. We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget."
Mary Roach will make you laugh, will make you furrow your brow, will make you scratch your head and will make you want to share this curious book with others. I'm sharing it with you. READ IT!

Rating:
Summary: All kinds of fun - believe it or not
Review: Yep, this is a fun book about dead bodies. That may seem paradoxical, but I encourage you to give this one a try if that sounds like an interesting combination to you.

Roach never crosses the line into being offensive or disrespectful, but manages to create a truly informative book that shows you around a world most of us never think about while keeping things very light. The book is a winner on the novelty factor alone, but throw in great writing and Roach's offbeat sense of humor and you have what I consider to be one of the standout books of recent memory.

Rating:
Summary: Laughed out Loud
Review: I appreciate a quirky sense of humor, and Mary Roach has that. I also appreciated that she was respectful of the deceased and their "adventures". She told her tale with warmth, much humor (because let's face it, life is weird/funny/bizzare/comical), lots of really interesting facts and experiences.

I especially enjoyed learning how cadavers have really helped modern life - from being actual "crash test dummies" to developing better Kevlar protection for our law enforcement. And she's right- the decision to leave your body IS yours, but those of us who have to do the actual signing of the papers, deserve a right to nix the idea. I would like my body used to help science, military, whatever (even nasty decomp studies), but if my family can't stand that thought, so be it. They are the ones who have to live with the mental images.

Great read, kind of gross (so don't read over lunch), but I started laughing on page 4 and kept on.