Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach
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Book Reviews of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Book Review: A Guide to Cadaver-ology or Corpse-ology
Summary: 4 Stars
+++++
This book by science writer Mary Roach is an unexpectedly fresh, entertaining, thoughtful, sensitive, and informative look at the many ways in which human dead bodies benefit the living.
In the introduction to her book, Roach tells us what her book is about:
(1) "This is a book about notable achievements made while dead."
(2) "This is a book about the sometimes odd, often shocking, always compelling things cadavers have done."
(3) "This book is NOT about death as in dying...There is nothing funny about losing a person you love, or about being the person about to be lost."
(4) "This book is about the already dead, the anonymous, behind-the-scenes dead."
This book is composed of a dozen chapters. Below I will state the main focus of each chapter. (Note that the chapter order is not necessarily the same as that in the book):
(1) Cadaveric use in dissection and surgical instruction
(2) Human decay and what can be done about it
(3) How do you know if you're dead?
(4) History of body snatching and other gruesome activities
(5) Decapitation and the human head transplant
(6) Cadaveric medicine and cannibalism
(7) How to dispose of a body (such as by cremation or human composting)
(8) The science of impact tolerance (using human crash test dummies)
(9) Crash analysis: when passenger bodies must tell the real story
(10) Cadaver use in law enforcement and in the army
(11) Cadaver use in crucifixion experiments
(12) The author's conundrum: how will she allow her dead body to be used?
Roach throughout her book asks all the questions that most of us have probably thought of but never dared to ask. Despite being gruesome at times, she does it with sensitive wit and style thus making the subject matter a little easier to handle. The result: she is able to hold the reader's attention from beginning to end. (I found that some parts of this book are written better than others.)
The humor (never at the expense of the dead) in the main narrative of this book caused me to smile, giggle, chuckle, and even occasionally to laugh out loud. Recommendation: don't read this book in a place where you are expected to be quiet such as a library.
To be sure, Roach provides the reader with the scientific aspects behind cadavers and their invaluable uses. But the reader is also exposed to the history of cadavers and history of the related activities associated with them. (Some readers may think she delves too much into these related activities.)
This book does not discuss only human cadavers. Non-human animals, both dead and alive, are also discussed. Thus, highly sensitive animal lovers may have difficulty with some of the research that Roach has uncovered. (Note some of what Roach has uncovered with respect to animals may seem gruesome but remember Roach is just conveying what her research reveals.)
Footnotes, often humorous, permeate this book. As well, black and white photographs accompany the beginning of each chapter.
Finally, my only major problem with this book is that it has no index. There are so many facts and stories about human cadavers and related activities in this book that I feel that the omission of an index was a major oversight. A minor complaint is with respect to the book's chapter order. I feel the chapter order was somewhat haphazard. Thus, I read the book in the chapter order indicated above.
In conclusion, this book effectively and humorously tells the curious story of our bodies when we are no longer with them. You'll discover that once you're dead, there's still plenty your body can do!!
(first published 2003; introduction; 12 chapters; main narrative 300 pages; acknowledgements; bibliography)
+++++
Book Review: Would give it six stars... er, if I could tell anybody I read it...
Summary: 5 Stars
This, along with 101 Ways to Kill Your Spouse and Not Get Caught, Bugger Picking for Fun and Profit, Roaches in History, and Surgery for Dummies, is one of the books you can't tell anybody you're reading--especially at work or parties.
Them: "...So! What have you been reading lately?"
You: "Uh... a book on cadavers."
Them: (swallowing martini olive, choking) "Come again?" (cough cough)
You: "Um... well, it's funny... It's a book on... bodies and... Who won the Booker Prize this year?"
Them: "Uh..."
See? Isn't that akward? But I have a way around that for you.
First of all, tell people that you're reading a book that you can't tell anybody you're reading. Of course, this works as a great introduction every time because they want to be one of the people you WOULD tell. "Oh, so what is it?" They say, acting all curious and broadminded. "It's a book about CADAVERS!" And say it grinning like your brain is the size of a martini olive and you're way too happy for your own good.
Kidding aside, I must say that I think this book is essential to anyone who is considering donating their body to science. Do you know what that means--to donate to science? That you will end up in an anotomy lab somewhere, with Kiefer Sutherland asking someone to paddle him back from the dead?
No, sweetie. That means that your dead butt may wind up in a GM lab somewhere duct taped to the driver's seat as a crash test dummy. (This is no big deal if you are from Memphis, as here you can't tell from someone's driving whether or not they're dead, and if you're not sure, cadavers drive better than Memphians. If you see Elvis, then don't worry about it, he's in both catagories, depending on who you ask.)
Or you may have a finger or two sent to a window manufacturer to test out the damage they do when they accidentally slip. But don't sweat it--you won't feel a thing! You will, however, save lives. Did you know for every crash test cadaver donated 64 lives were saved?
Then there's the whole history of the cadaver, which, from what I understand, has been around a while. But what have people done with them? What will they do with them in the future? How did they tell if they were really dead, and what about that Body Farm we keep reading about in forensic novels? Did you know that there's a move in Europe to compost people? (It's a cheap way to turn grandma into a rutabaga). Or how about being processed to remove all your water, so all that remains is that little pile of dust preachers keep telling you is worth less than a buck so better get your life right with God right now, cause you ain't worth nuttin' dead. (That's not true either--you can be sold after you die--more than once). And what about those poor anatomist in the day of witchunts? (Did they turn into Newts?)
And what about leaving a request for those left behind? What makes the best sense for them regarding your remains? Certainly not getting your skull and using it in Hamlet. (Requested by an actor--for real).
And I have to say, Mary Roach simply has the most wicked sense of humor I've seen in many, many years, Right. Where. you! don't. Expect it. It truly was terribly funny.
So if you're on a plane and don't want to converse, or you want people to leave you alone at work, or just are plain old fashioned non-conformist, read this book. It is one of most educating books I ever read and damn funny to boot. (I never thought I would say this, but I actually want to hang out with a Roach).
Also makes a great present to mother-in-laws. Highlight sections and wrap it in butcher paper, hun. Give the old gal a start. Who needs another pair of slippers?
Book Review: Fascinating Read! Well Researched and Goes into Great Detail of Options for Those Thinking of Donating Their Corpse to Science!
Summary: 5 Stars
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 it would increase the corpse 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) pay for the corpses. I'd certainly consider it if money went to people in my Will by doing so, but wouldn't just benefit some ageing or vain person who wants to look better or younger.
Another great non fiction book on the death industry that reads as well as a fiction novel is Mop Men: Inside the World of Crime Scene Cleaners by Alan Emmis.
Book Review: Uneven, cobbled-together assemblage of essays
Summary: 2 Stars
I picked up this book, partly out of curiosity but primarily due to the accolades of reviewers attesting to the humorous and deft way its' author, Mary Roach, dealt with what must be the squirmiest of subjects. The author's scholarship is indeed admirable, but the humor that others cited as the main selling point of the book I found to be largely inept, and ostensibly at the expense of the many people who granted Roach access to their work.
Straight out of the gate, the author opens up with are perhaps the most interesting essays in the book - profiling a man whose job is to sort out what happened in a plane crash by examining the remains of its' passengers; what happens to one's body when it is willed to science; and the real gains made in automotive safety through the use of cadavers. It would be an understatement to say that cadaver donors and their families might be surprised at how their bodies are used to advance scientific inquiry, whether it is in the study of how bodies decay when exposed to the elements (of great importance in estimating time of death, and the subject of William M. Bass and Jon Jefferson's "Death's Acre") or the esteem in which gross anatomy students hold their subjects. The author rightly posits that understanding the 'Big Picture' when it comes to cadaver research will lead to greater numbers of donations, rather than simply scaring potential donors off. With this I have no argument.
That being said, I found the majority of the author's necrological forays to be dredging the shallows of the subjects' depths, and often left me wanting more information. It does seem fitting that, at least at the time of my typing this review, the publisher has not provided a look inside this book. Its' subjects are randomly collected from a variety of sources, and in many ways the book itself seems to arbitrarily cobble together essays the size and depth of which might suit a series of magazine articles as opposed to an examination of death and how we learn from those who have passed before us. The chapter entitled "Eat Me" deals with cannibalism, but ends up reveling in its examination of the strange things people eat in the Far East. Roach's tone in "Just a Head" (where the experiments in transplanting the heads of dogs onto other animals are performed as a scientifically-dubious means of gleaning how human heads might also be transplanted) is glib and off-putting, with little sympathy for the subjects of these horrific experiments.
As in the case of several of the chapters in this book, the subject was too intense to be dealt with in the on/off humor/horror method Roach took with her material. Other chapters were just plain dull, creating the impression in this reader of an author desperately trying to fill enough pages to justify the book's publication. Also, the author's copious use of footnote-like asides (where she would attempt witty puns that more often than not fell flat) became annoying, as they failed to add anything to my understanding of the subject.
Roach is also guilty, in my opinion, of thinking herself superior to her (living) subjects. More often than not she makes fun of the doctors, medical staff members, university professors, and other assorted personalities, without the research of whom she would not have been able to write this book. I was often left with a sense of the mean-spiritedness of the author than of the inherent humor to be found in the subject at-hand, and would therefore not recommend purchasing this book.
Book Review: Offbeat Nonfiction Read; Manages to Be Both Disturbing and Funny
Summary: 4 Stars
WHAT is this book about?
In a nutshell, this is a book about dead bodies (or, as scientists prefer to call them, cadavers). In this book, we learn about the many ways human cadavers are used. Here are some of the topics Roach explores in the book:
* Practicing surgery on the dead
* The ethics and realities of donating your body to science
* A brief history of body snatching
* Understanding human decay (for help with forensics)
* Studying the impact of car crashes on the human body
* Determining the cause of a plane crash by studying the bodies
* Assessing the impact of ballistics on the body
* Crucifixion experiments
* Determining the precise moment of death
* The history of human head transplants
* Medicinal cannibalism.
WHO do we meet?
* Mary Roach--the author of the book. Roach is not afraid to insert herself into the story--never holding back on her personal reactions, feelings and thoughts as she conducts her various interviews. Lucky for us, she has a terrific sense of humor, which makes her an ideal guide through this often disturbing subject.
* A variety of scientists, physicians and professionals who work with human cadavers. These are the people who Roach visits and interviews for the book, and I imagine they were either thrilled for the exposure or regretful at the reactions their friends and families might have had once they found out what they are really do all day.
WHEN and WHERE does the book take place?
Mary traveled around the world conducting various interviews and research for this book in the early 2000s.
WHY should you read this book?
Would you believe me if I told you this book is funny, fascinating and oddly informative? I know it sounds like such a horrible subject, but Roach manages to make you simultaneously interested and amused by her explorations into the world of the human cadavers. I'd previously read Roach's book Spook (about the afterlife) and enjoyed this one just as much. Mary Roach has a talent for researching oddball topics and writing about them in a way that is both funny and educational. If you've ever considered donating your body to science, this is a book you will probably want to read (or, on second thought, maybe not). I was interested to learn all the different ways that scientists are using human cadavers to make the world of the living safer. Although there are definitely sections that are disturbing and graphic, there are just as many that will either make you laugh or think deeper about a subject most of us don't think about too much. If you're looking for an offbeat nonfiction read with a sense of humor and an attitude, any book by Mary Roach would be a good choice.