Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach
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Read in February, 2007
I bought this book when I first taught my class that has a foresnic anthropology component. I thought I could pick out a chapter of this book to assign to them, and it would be a nice, informative, lay-person account that would be entertaining, yet informational. However, due to time constraints, I never got around to reading the book. In that time, several people have borrowed and returned this book to me, so my copy is a bit tattered and dog-eared, as if I'd read it many times. I can safely sa...more
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"Why lie around on your back when you can do something interesting and new, something useful?" Mary Roach asks us future corpses and potential cadavers in her book, "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers." She examines some of those interesting and useful things as well as some of the many interesting things, useful or not, that have been done in the past with, and to, dead bodies. She also explores the attendant ethical questions and how the answers to
those questio...more
those questio...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
people who like to make donations.
Some thoughts:
1. Barring that I marry a sentimental husband who wants my remains to lie next to his in some family plot, I'll happily give up my body for science. It seems that we owe much of the safety created for us in cars, planes, in surgery, etc., to countless others who gave up their bodies, as well. Of course, they may have imagined (as I did before reading this book) that they'd just end up pickled in formaldehyde and plunked into a gross anatomy classroom, but no. There are many ...more
1. Barring that I marry a sentimental husband who wants my remains to lie next to his in some family plot, I'll happily give up my body for science. It seems that we owe much of the safety created for us in cars, planes, in surgery, etc., to countless others who gave up their bodies, as well. Of course, they may have imagined (as I did before reading this book) that they'd just end up pickled in formaldehyde and plunked into a gross anatomy classroom, but no. There are many ...more
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22 comments
Have you ever wondered what happens after death? I’m not talking about the spiritual part or anything to do with personal religious beliefs. I’m talking about the question of what happens to your body after you have ceased to inhabit it. What happens to the physical matter that is left behind? The corpse. The cadaver. The remains.
Mary Roach examines this exact question in her novel "Stiff," giving readers a glimpse into "The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers." H...more
Mary Roach examines this exact question in her novel "Stiff," giving readers a glimpse into "The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers." H...more
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recommends it for:
curious folks looking to expand their knowledge
A couple of months ago, I went to an exhibit in Dallas called BodyWorlds. They used a process called plastination (actually covered in this book) to help preserve a body from decaying - this assisted in the study of anatomy. In the BodyWorlds exhibit, they rigged the various cadavers in various poses to highlight different body systems. The exhibit charged my thoughts about the whole concept of donating oneself to science and when a friend picked up this book at the airport book store, I deci...more
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recommended to Claire by:
my father
recommends it for: everyone
recommends it for: everyone
I have been reading a few of the other reviews and just had to add my own two cents. I few bad reviews that I read dealt mostly with her style of writing and their dislike of her jokes and interjections, etc. Just goes to show you that it takes all kinds! I love this book! I thought it was very scientific and she had obviously done a LOT of research for the book. There is no point that I felt she was talking about something she couldn't back up or was venturing into her own opinion, etc. Tha...more
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Read in December, 2004
recommends it for:
people interested in gross stuff, death, mortuary science, burial practices
I'd been wanting to read this book for a long time before a friend finally gave me a copy for my birthday this year.
The scope of the book is broader than I expected. I think I was expecting a bunch of funny, sometimes bittersweet stories about anatomy labs and funeral homes. Stiff is much more than that. Yes, it covers anatomy labs (one of my favorite chapters in the book) and funeral homes, but dead bodies go many more places than that -- crash-testing labs, for example. And sometimes into ...more
The scope of the book is broader than I expected. I think I was expecting a bunch of funny, sometimes bittersweet stories about anatomy labs and funeral homes. Stiff is much more than that. Yes, it covers anatomy labs (one of my favorite chapters in the book) and funeral homes, but dead bodies go many more places than that -- crash-testing labs, for example. And sometimes into ...more
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Read in December, 2007
"Stiff" first caught my attention when I was watching the TV show "Six Feet Under," and it was given to one of the main characters, an undertaker, as a gift. After that, when I saw it in the book store, I knew instantly that I would like it -- what with my interest in gore and the unknown that occurs after life. I was completely on target.
Journalist Mary Roach's NY Times Best Seller was an easy read, humorous throughout, and at the same time was extremely informative and...more
Journalist Mary Roach's NY Times Best Seller was an easy read, humorous throughout, and at the same time was extremely informative and...more
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Read in November, 2007
I have just finished reading Stiff. It's rare that a book makes me squeamish - and in some instances - scared!
What kept me from putting the book down was the narrator's slightly sarcastic, sort of matter of fact, but always friendly tone. She successfully portrayed some pretty gruesome details in a sensitive and honest/truthful manner (at least as far as I know).
It is oversimplification to say that Stiff just addresses what happens to your body when you donate it ...more
What kept me from putting the book down was the narrator's slightly sarcastic, sort of matter of fact, but always friendly tone. She successfully portrayed some pretty gruesome details in a sensitive and honest/truthful manner (at least as far as I know).
It is oversimplification to say that Stiff just addresses what happens to your body when you donate it ...more
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Read in January, 2004
In my nonfiction phase during the year, I grabbed this one and after finishing it, regretted its purchase. The book is about medical use of corpses and the human body, present-day and in the past. The subject matter is extremely interesting, and some of the methods, tests, and history behind human body experiments is worth the read. The book makes you want to be an organ donor, or want to donate your body to medical science. The problem is that the author is one of the WORST writers I have e...more
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8 comments
I absolutely could not put this book down. A hilarious yet somehow respectful exploration of what happens to our bodies once we're dead. Roach takes her inquisitive mind to places it wouldn't occur to me to go, way past normal burial and cremation to medical school anatomy labs, human crash test dummies, cannibalism, and the decapitated heads that plastic surgeons use for practice...and she makes me laugh every step of the way.
In the chapter, "How To Know if You're Dead:" Roach's ...more
In the chapter, "How To Know if You're Dead:" Roach's ...more
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Human bodies. Dead human bodies. This subject is not usually the most pleasant of conversation topics in any situation. However, author Mary Roach approaches this normally disturbing topic with enthusiasm and crafts a book that manages to be intriguing, gripping, gruesome, and yet hilarious at the same time. In the Alex Award winning book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, readers will learn how scientists have used human cadavers for over 2,000 years to accomplish a variety ...more
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Read in January, 2008
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Read in February, 2007
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....more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Katrina by:
Poppy
I wanted so much to like this book and I did, to an extent. But the author's seemingly inconsistent squeamishness started to annoy me after awhile. (She was perfectly okay with seeing bodies decomposing in the sun but freaked out so much at the description of a method used to keep cadavers' mouths closed for funeral viewings that she stops the mortician student mid-explanation.) Also, it seemed to me that, the longer the book went on, the more the author became impressed with her own jokes, s...more
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As you can probably tell from my other reviewed books, I have some weird fascination with death and the afterlife (in this case, it's more like your body's afterlife). This is another non-fiction work, and the author seems to relish the idea of writing about a subject she knows will make most people squirm in their seats. "Stiff" is written almost like a news article in its factual, non-emotional style about the topic of death. Sure, the author does touch on some of the spiritual and r...more
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Read in January, 2007
Or who doesn't after reading this book? Roach is an amazing writer. She approaches this delicate subject with a good balance of humor, respect, and enthusiasm, and the reader can't help but be absorbed immediately.
Each chapter is spent discussing a possible "life" for a human cadaver. There are many expected courses, such as anatomy dissections and cremations, but also many unexpected courses, such as crash test dummy calibrator, ballistics assistant, compost, and ingredient for f...more
Each chapter is spent discussing a possible "life" for a human cadaver. There are many expected courses, such as anatomy dissections and cremations, but also many unexpected courses, such as crash test dummy calibrator, ballistics assistant, compost, and ingredient for f...more
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Not on My Watch
Not on my watch. There is no way I will just sit around and hear a person demean you. Not on my watch. He chose the wrong person to speak so liberally to. Not on my watch. I won't stand to hear evil comments about the man I love. He, the person I speak of, would have actually sat around and smiled and laughed if someone else had said that to him about me. That was the type of person he was. And I was always correcting him when he smiled and walked on. I would say, did...more
Not on my watch. There is no way I will just sit around and hear a person demean you. Not on my watch. He chose the wrong person to speak so liberally to. Not on my watch. I won't stand to hear evil comments about the man I love. He, the person I speak of, would have actually sat around and smiled and laughed if someone else had said that to him about me. That was the type of person he was. And I was always correcting him when he smiled and walked on. I would say, did...more
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This is one of my favorite books. I have quite the affinity for books dealing with the medical sciences, and coupled with my macbre interests in death and the body after it's dead, this book was right up my alley. Roach chronicles, the curious, yet exicing life of human cadavers in all of their many uses. What makes this book enjoyable is the author's wonderfully appropriate humor she has while still keeping things in perspective and having the proper respect for the dead and those who donate th...more
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Costumo ler em lugares públicos, especialmente em ônibus e metrô, o que me tornou alvo de alguns olhares censurosos durante a leitura de "Stiff". A capa do livro, que pendura o título nos pés de um cadáver, realmente não é das mais agradáveis. Mas fora a reação alheia, o contato com "Stiff" é prazeroso. Mary Roach escreve de forma leve e respeitosa, às vezes dotada de muito humor, sobre um tema difícil - os nossos restos mortais. Não tinha a noção de que poss...more
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