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A review by jenbsbooks
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
4.75
Is this a 5* book? I'm not sure, but it's one that will stay with me. One I went ahead and ordered a hardcover of to keep on my shelves. One I wanted to get back to when I had to stop. One I've recommended to others ... although not everyone. It is a complicated subject. The tag line "The Curious LIVES of Human Cadavers" ...
I went with the audio, but had the Kindle copy for reference. I really like that the Table of Contents is so complete. Re-reading the chapter headings, I can remember exactly what was in each section of the book. It gives would be readers and idea of what they are getting into ...
1. A Head is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Practicing Surgery on the Dead.
2. Crimes of Anatomy: Body Snatching and other sordid tales ...
3. Life After Death: On Human Decay and what can be done about it.
4. Dead Man Driving: Human Crash Test Dummies.
5. Beyond The Black Box: After an airline crash, the bodies tell the story.
6. The Cadaver Who Joined The Army: Ethics of bullets and bombs.
7. Holy Cadaver: Crucifixion experiments.
8. How To Know If You're Dead: Beating-heart cadavers, live burial ...
9. Just a Head: Decapitation, reanimation and the human head transplant
10. Eat Me: Medicinal cannibalism
11. Out of the Fire, Into the Compost Bin: other ways to end up
12. Remains of the Author: Will she or won't she?
From the TOC - you can see the bits of humor, the puns and plays on words. There were several little quips throughout that would make me laugh out loud. I felt like I learned a lot too, although some (especially the history) was familiar. I remember reading about stealing bodies for early medical research, and for artists (DaVinci, etc). [book:The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America|397483] talks about how the serial killer of the time was able to get rid of bodies easily (and get paid for them!) Chapter 5 made me think of the book Dear Edward (plane crash, although nothing here/the examining of the bodies, was discussed in that book). Chapter 8 made me think of the medical shows on TV, the organ transplants, etc. Chapter 9 ... I recently watched the movie "Poor Things" ... the doctor there had done some head transplants on animals! Chapter 10 ... made me recall my reading of [book:Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors|401514] and of course [book:Tender is the Flesh|49090884]. Chapter 11 was just interesting, have not heard of this "mortuary tissue digester" ...
Despite the first person for most of the book, it wasn't the author narrating (which isn't uncommon). The narration was fine. There were stops/starts in the recording that weren't pieced together as seamlessly as they could be. I was very aware of them. It would be in the present tense at parts, then the past tense ... I found the present tense a little odd. I couldn't quite determine if there was a reason (sometimes in novels, there are two timelines, and the tense can really be beneficial to the reader to keep things straight).
Words I note: jerry-rigged, roil, deleterious
Guinea Pigs -actually USED as subjects in an experiment (poor critters). There was no proFanity, but this deals with death and bodies and treatment of bodies (cutting them up, using them, abusing them) and it talks of other animal treatment/disposal too. It won't be a book for everyone.
I went with the audio, but had the Kindle copy for reference. I really like that the Table of Contents is so complete. Re-reading the chapter headings, I can remember exactly what was in each section of the book. It gives would be readers and idea of what they are getting into ...
1. A Head is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Practicing Surgery on the Dead.
2. Crimes of Anatomy: Body Snatching and other sordid tales ...
3. Life After Death: On Human Decay and what can be done about it.
4. Dead Man Driving: Human Crash Test Dummies.
5. Beyond The Black Box: After an airline crash, the bodies tell the story.
6. The Cadaver Who Joined The Army: Ethics of bullets and bombs.
7. Holy Cadaver: Crucifixion experiments.
8. How To Know If You're Dead: Beating-heart cadavers, live burial ...
9. Just a Head: Decapitation, reanimation and the human head transplant
10. Eat Me: Medicinal cannibalism
11. Out of the Fire, Into the Compost Bin: other ways to end up
12. Remains of the Author: Will she or won't she?
From the TOC - you can see the bits of humor, the puns and plays on words. There were several little quips throughout that would make me laugh out loud. I felt like I learned a lot too, although some (especially the history) was familiar. I remember reading about stealing bodies for early medical research, and for artists (DaVinci, etc). [book:The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America|397483] talks about how the serial killer of the time was able to get rid of bodies easily (and get paid for them!) Chapter 5 made me think of the book Dear Edward (plane crash, although nothing here/the examining of the bodies, was discussed in that book). Chapter 8 made me think of the medical shows on TV, the organ transplants, etc. Chapter 9 ... I recently watched the movie "Poor Things" ... the doctor there had done some head transplants on animals! Chapter 10 ... made me recall my reading of [book:Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors|401514] and of course [book:Tender is the Flesh|49090884]. Chapter 11 was just interesting, have not heard of this "mortuary tissue digester" ...
Despite the first person for most of the book, it wasn't the author narrating (which isn't uncommon). The narration was fine. There were stops/starts in the recording that weren't pieced together as seamlessly as they could be. I was very aware of them. It would be in the present tense at parts, then the past tense ... I found the present tense a little odd. I couldn't quite determine if there was a reason (sometimes in novels, there are two timelines, and the tense can really be beneficial to the reader to keep things straight).
Words I note: jerry-rigged, roil, deleterious
Guinea Pigs -actually USED as subjects in an experiment (poor critters). There was no proFanity, but this deals with death and bodies and treatment of bodies (cutting them up, using them, abusing them) and it talks of other animal treatment/disposal too. It won't be a book for everyone.