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  $12.95 List price: 23.95 You save: $11.00
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More copies of this ISBN:Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadaversby Mary Roach
Powells.com Staff PickWhat happens to your body after you?re dead? If you?ve been generous enough to donate your body to science, quite a lot can happen to it. Author Mary Roach writes a strangely compelling?and often quite funny?book about dead bodies. While it might appear morbid, this book is actually thoughtful and informative. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers takes you inside a world unlike anything you could ever imagine. Who knew that so many people worked with corpses for a living? Stiff is a most compelling read. Roach researches several different job occupations that require human cadavers. In the ?Dead Man Driving? chapter, engineers carefully study bodies who double as real life crash test dummies. Although manufactured vinyl ones are helpful, sometimes a human body is needed to really see what happens in car crashes. ?Because of changes that have come about as a result of cadaver studies, it?s now possible to survive a head-on crash into a wall at 60 mph,? Mary Roach writes. She also observes that people who work with human cadavers tend to be a bit peculiar, but not in a ghoulish way. One crash test scientist introduces himself as ?the cadaver man.? Roach recalls a scene with black humor?as the engineers try to prop the cadaver into crash testing position, the radio plays That?s What I Like about You. It?s bizarre, funny, and strangely mundane all at the same time. There is also an ecological twist to this book. In the ?composting? chapter, Roach interviews a Swedish biologist named Susanne Wiigh-Masak, who founded a company called ?Promessa.? This company offers another alternative to burial, which is a more technologically advanced form of organic composting. Its web site says, ?Promessa ...is developing and offering a new method of laying the dead to rest. [It is] an environmentally friendly form of burial that takes full consideration of the biological realities to which a corpse is subjected.? How does this work? A corpse is freeze-dried by being dipped into a vat of liquid nitrogen. Then, ultrasound waves shatter the corpse into small pieces, ?more or less the size of ground chuck,? writes Roach. The still-frozen body is freeze-dried and used as compost for a tree or shrub. Roach has a keen eye for strange details, and Stiff is full of informative footnotes and sidebar stories that are carefully researched. She doesn?t have to write that a human crash test dummy is wearing a Danskin leotard and a diaper, but she does, because she can?t bear to leave any details out. She also delves into the topics of crucifixion, organ harvesting, human head transplants, guillotines and cannibalism. Mary Roach is clearly fascinated by this subject, yet keeps a sense of dignity about cadavers and the people who work with them. C. Reichstein, Powells.com Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:An oddly compelling, often hilarious forensic 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. 13 b/w illustrations. Book News Annotation:From medicinal mummies to cadaver models for crash-test dummies, a
San Francisco writer presents a well-researched, lively dissection of
offbeat ways that the dead have served the living and treats medical
and ethical issues. Not a life or death matter, but a spell
checker/editor missed the use of "piece" for "peace" (p.150).
Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Review:"As fascinating as it is funny....The research is admirable, the anecdotes carefully chosen, and the prose lively; and they combine to produce a book that everyone in the health care field should have to read, and everyone else will want to." Caleb Carr, author of The Alienist
Review:"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." Library Journal
Review:"Fascinating, unexpectedly fresh and funny look at the multiplicity of ways in which cadavers benefit the living....Roach delights in imparting odd information, such as the fact that 18th-century students at certain Scottish medical schools could pay their tuition in corpses rather than cash, and when the curious facts unearthed by her research don't fit neatly into her narrative, she slips them into droll footnotes. Informative, yes; entertaining, absolutely." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis:Includes bibliographical references (p. [295]-303).
Synopsis:In her droll, intimate voice, Roach conducts an oddly compelling, often hilarious forensic exploration of the strange lives of bodies postmortem. 13 illustrations. About the AuthorMary Roach's popular column in Salon inspired this book. She is also the author of the "My Planet" column in Reader's Digest. Her writing has appeared in Outside, the New York Times Magazine, and numerous other publications. She lives in San Francisco. Table of ContentsA head is a terrible thing to waste : practicing surgery on the dead — Crimes of anatomy : body snatching and other sordid tales from the dawn of human dissection — Life after death : on human decay and what can be done about it — Dead man driving : human crash test dummies and the ghastly, necessary science of impact tolerance — Beyond the black box : when the bodies of the passengers must tell the story of a crash — The cadaver who joined the army : the sticky ethics of bullets and bombs — Holy cadaver : the crucifixion experiments — How to know if you're dead : beating-heart cadavers, live burial, and the scientific search for the soul — Just a head : decapitation, reanimation, and the human head transplant — Eat me : medicinal cannibalism and the case of the human dumplings — Out of the fire, into the compost bin : and other new ways to end up — Remains of the author : will she or won't she?
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