Review
The numerous tidbits of information derived from the author's travels and interviews make [this book] uniquely appealing.--Joseph H Davis, MD (07/16/2003)
Review
As a book about dead bodies and how they are used by the living, the subject matter is macabre. But the author is clearly having such a good time with the material that you cannot help but read on in a state of appalled fascination. While plenty of the lurid stuff about dissection, body snatching, airplane and car crash victims is not actually new, it is convenient to have it all rescued from the twilight status of urban myth and dressed respectably between smart hardcovers. This is not, emphatically, a book about death and dying. It is about what is left behind once the business of living is done with. The author is able to write about her subject with a certain clinical detachment and black humour, but this is still not a book for the recently bereaved or for anyone looking forward to a long stay in hospital. And it is definitely not for any one planning to leave a body to medical science.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Susan Orleans, author of The Orchid Thief
Droll, dark, and quite wise, Stiff makes being dead funny and fascinating and weirdly appealing
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Publishing Weekly, starred review
Fascinating, unexpectedly fresh and funny . . Informative, yes; entertaining, absolutely.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Krikus, starred review
a book as informative and respectful as it is irreverent and witty. Roach has a fabulous eye and a wonderful voice ... impossible to put down.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
What happens to your body after you have died? Fertilizer? Crash Test Dummy? Human Dumpling? Ballistics Practise?
Life after death is not as simple as it looks. Mary Roach's Stiff lifts the lid off what happens to our bodies once we have died. Bold, original and with a delightful eye for detail, Roach tells us everything we wanted to know about this new frontier in medical science.
Interweaving present-day explorations with a history of past attempts to study what it means to be human Stiff is a deliciously dark investigations for readers of popular science as well as fans of the macabre
About the Author
Mary Roach is a journalist. She has written for Salon, Wired, GQ, Discover, Vogue and the New York Times Magazine. This is her first book.
