Stiff (Mary Roach)

OVERVIEW

I am only 20 years late to the Mary Roach Stiff party, but better late than never! To sum: there is no shortage of ways in which you can employ a human cadaver. You can use them to practice surgery or learn anatomy, to study decay and solve crimes, to test seatbelts and airbags, to determine the cause of plane crashes, and to examine the effects of munitions – you can even use them to disprove religious claims. (If you’re from the 12th century you might also steep them in honey to create “medicine” for sore throats and flatulence… but that’s fallen out of fashion). You’ll also learn a lot of fun history: that guillotines were created as a humane alternative to hanging, that we love to try and reanimate decapitated heads, and that if dissection makes you squeamish, you definitely shouldn’t Google vivisection.

If you enjoyed Stiff, I would also recommend Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab (Christine Montross), Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory (Caitlin Doughty), and Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (Judy Melinek).

IN SUM:

Is this book entirely secular? No.

If I had to describe the book in one sentence? All the things that can be done with your corpse (and a brief history of why humans are horrible).

Who should read this book? Those with morbid curiosity and gallows humour.