Stiff - Mary Roach

   2003; 292 pages.  Full Title: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Medical Research; Death; Forensic Medicine; Science; Non-Fiction.  Laurels: “Best Book of 2003” by San Francisco Chronicle; “Best Book of 2003” by Entertainment Weekly; Amazon’s 2003 Editor’s Choice; and oodles more.  Overall Rating : 9½*/10.

 

    It’s an important question that none of us ever want to consider: what is to be done with our earthly remains after we’ve shuffled off this mortal coil?

 

    For some, it’s simply a choice of being cremated or buried.  Both are expensive, neither is particularly eco-friendly.  The technology for a third option - composting -  is in the works, but it's not fully viable yet..  Once it becomes available, choosing it means you can help a rosebush or a tree grow.

 

    Becoming an organ donor is another consideration.  It’s a great idea if you happen to die when young, but is of diminishing value as you age.  Who wants an 80-year-old’s eyes, heart, or liver?

 

    So how about donating one’s whole body to science?  That sounds great, as long as you don’t ask: what exactly are the scientists going to *do* with my cadaver?  The general answer is: lots of different things.

 

    The detailed answer can be found by reading Mary Roach’s excellent book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.

 

What’s To Like...

    Stiff is another one of Mary Roach’s one-word-title, research-oriented science books, this one with the overall theme of what happens to our bodies after we’re dead.  It opens with a 10-page introduction from the author, detailing her thoughts and emotions while researching Stiff, followed by 12 chapters covering all sorts of topics, namely:

    Ch. 01: Plastic Surgery Practice

    Ch. 02: Dissection

    Ch. 03: Burial, Embalming, and Cremation

    Ch. 04: Automobile Crashes

    Ch. 05: Plane Crashes

    Ch. 06: Bombs & Bullets

    Ch. 07: Crucifixion

    Ch. 08: Organ-Donating

    Ch. 09: Head Transplants

    Ch. 10: Cannibalism

    Ch. 11: The Compost Option

    Ch. 12: The Author’s Choices

 

    My favorite chapters are marked in pink, but frankly, I enjoyed them all.  Each one starts with an attention-getting photograph, followed by a clever title-&-subtitle, and seasoned with lots of footnotes that are both witty and informative.  This is my fourth Mary Roach book, and each one has been a enlightening experience.  Here, for instance, you’ll learn things like:

 

    History.  When dissection was a sentencing option.  How and when necrophilia laws changed over the years (you’ll be surprised).  What caused TWA Flight 800 to crash, and how they figured it out.  How they determined if the Shroud of Turin was real or a hoax.

 

    Medicine.  What a “flail chest” is and why it happens when you break your ribs.  What the maximum capacity of the human stomach is (it’s listed in the Guinness World Book of Records).  What a “beating-heart cadaver” is (my wife, who works in the medical field, already knew all about this).

 

    Chemistry & Engineering.  The four stages of cadaver decomposition (can we call it organic chemistry?).  What “plastination” is.  How gelatin is manufactured (my company was involved in that). The mechanics of a hit-and-run (you get “run under”, not “run over”).

 

    Weird.  Why guinea pigs were once subjected to a “vertical catapult” in the name of research.  Grave-sharing in Sweden.  Evidence that Thomas Edison was “loopy”.

 

    The book has an ending – somewhat unusual for a non-fiction “science-y” tome, and I thought it was deftly done: after all her research, Mary Roach reveals her thoughts about what to do with her remains when she departs this world.  I daresay you'll be surprised by her postmortem wishes; I was.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 3,947 ratings.

    Goodreads: 4.05/5 based on 186,286 ratings and 14,365 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    In exchange for their experiences, these cadavers agree to a sizable amount of gore.  They are dismembered, cut open, rearranged.  But here’s the thing: They don’t endure anything.  Cadavers are our superheroes.  They brave fire without flinching, withstand falls from tall buildings and head-on car crashes into walls.  You can fire a gun at them or run a speedboat over their legs, and it will not faze them.  Their heads can be removed with no deleterious effect.  They can be in six places at once.  (pg. 10)

 

    Intestinal gas is a waste product of bacteria metabolism.

    The difference is that when we’re alive, we expel that gas.  The dead, lacking workable stomach muscles and sphincters and bedmates to annoy, do not.  Cannot.  So the gas builds up and the belly bloats.  I ask Arpad why the gas wouldn’t just get forced out eventually.  He explains that the small intestine has pretty much collapsed and sealed itself off.  Or that there might be “something” blocking the egress.  Though he allows, with some prodding, that a little bad air often does, in fact, slip out, and so, as a matter of record, it can be said that dead people fart.  It needn’t be, but it can.  (pg. 66)

 

For a former doctor whose job now entails diapering and dressing cadavers, he has an admirably upbeat disposition.  (pg. 97)

    There’s really nothing to gripe about in Stiff.  The text is incredibly clean – I only noted a single “damn” in the entire book, and IIRC (I didn’t jot down the page number), it was when the author was quoting someone.  I saw only a single typo: “piece” instead of “peace”.

 

    I was impressed with the “tone” throughout the book: somehow Mary Roach finds just the right balance between respecting the loved ones who have passed on and the objective reality of subjecting the cadavers to all sorts of tests and analyses to further the knowledge in fields such as forensics, accident investigation, and anatomy.

 

    This is one of Mary Roach’s most popular books, and the high accolades it garnered are fully justified.  After reading this book you can’t help but ask yourself: what instructions, if any, should I leave for my own earthly remains?  Give it some consideration.

 

    9½ Stars.  Stiff was my fourth Mary Roach book, and I’ve yet to give a rating of less than 9 Stars for any of her works.  Two more remain in my TBR stash – Packing For Mars and Spook.  I have no doubt that they will be just as fascinating and enlightening as the ones I've already read.