Stiff

The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

By: Mary Roach

Narrated by: Shelly Frasier

Length: 8 hrs

Publisher's summary

An oddly compelling, often hilarious 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.

©2003 Mary Roach (P)2003 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Alex Award Winner, 2004

"Uproariously funny....informative and respectful...irreverent and witty....impossible to put down." (Publishers Weekly)
"Not grisly but inspiring, this work considers the many valuable scientific uses of the body after death." (Library Journal)
"One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year." (Entertainment Weekly)

Learn what happens to us after death

Stiff is a very complete, informative, mostly unemotional story of researching what happens to human bodies after death from the normal to the weird, religious to scientific, old to futuristic means of processing dead human remains. Not for the faint of heart, but very much for the curious. Check out Stiff if you want to know more and had questions about certain means of processing dead human remains, it will enlighten (not in the religious sense) and educate you.

I laughed, I cried, I squirmed.

Would you consider the audio edition of Stiff to be better than the print version?

I don't know.I have never read the print version.

What did you like best about this story?

The way the author has of inserting funny non-sequiturs amidst the most gruesome or serious passages.

Have you listened to any of Shelly Frasier’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not but she is great!!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

Grossly interesting

Sort of textbook material. Very interesting the different uses for "stiffs". Many subjects very disturbing, but definitely interesting.

suprising

loved it and was also surprised how interesting and humorous it was! will share and listen to it again.

Excellent book

The narration is well done
The author gives a lot of info and the humor is well placed.
Well worth your time

Slightly creepy.

Could have used a little more emoting on the part of the narrator. Aborted fetus medicine should not feel boring.

Funny and Informative

I really enjoyed this book. I like the macabre parts of life and have read stories of happenings at mortuary’s, cemetery’s, and morgues. This book fit well into that genre. It was fascinating learning about the different ways a corpse can be used for study. The author was informative be not morbid, I even found myself chuckling out loud when reading this book.

A great listen!

This was a great listen! I learned so much, and it was very easy to follow along. I recommend!!

Great book!

This was actually a very interesting and well researched book & and was generally a lot of fun to listen to. The reader was fantastic, too. Her "smoky" voice was compelling, without being overly dramatic. Be prepared, though, for the stories of brutality that some (I hope not many) "scientists" (and I use the word loosely, at least with some of them as described here)brutalized (and still brutalize, I know) defenseless animals, in the name of "science". The people that I am describing truly, in my opinion, have cold hearts and no empathy for other living things. The book, as a whole, was top notch and very enlightening. The "experiments" are just part of the story, I guess.
Overall, I highly endorse this audiobook.

What it means to be an organ donor

This is not some macabre book about corpses, dead bodies and things that scratch your door in the dead of night. Not at all. Instead, its a book written in journalistic style, always respectfully, which brings to light knowledge which is not easily available. Its a topic we'd rather not approach, until we suddenly need to. And this stuff is not only interesting, but some of it is also useful and good to know. Also easy to understand and very accessible.

The body is regarded as a vehicle which we all at some stage will leave behind, and which then needs to be disposed of. The question is, whether we do so with a more emotive mindset, or alternatively, a more helpful one.

Its about how much the dead have already helped the living, and a sense of gratitude pervades the writing. Its given me a much broader outlook towards organ donation, which I always thought was only for students in anatomy labs. But its more. Much more.

There's a fair amount of historical background, and info about what other cultures have done in other ages. Some gruelling stuff there.

Finally, Ms Roach presents some of the latest "disposal" technologies, such as composting (mostly in Sweden) and liquefication (I forget the exact terminology). This is news to me.

Overall, a sensitive and extremely well-written, interesting expose of what happens behind closed doors. Lots to think about.