Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
W.W. Norton & Company, New York: 2003
ISBN: 0-393-05093-9

Plot Summary:
Stiff is a non-fiction book of essays about what happens to humans after they die. More specifically, what happens to their bodies or what is done to them. There are a multitude of ways corpses are put to use and Mary Roach explores many of them with tact and humor. She starts with an essay about plastic surgeons learning face-lift techniques on heads which have been severed from their bodies. Then we learn about the long tradition of anatomy students trying to procure their practice subjects by grave-robbing.

One of the most fascinating chapters is on the decomposition process and how the University of Tennessee studies bodies in different stages of the process in order to further pin down the exact time of death for murder victims. We get to read about how crash test dummies are constructed and how it is determined how they should be constructed. There are a couple of amazing chapters on crucifixion experiments and the human head transplant. Finally, there is a chapter on a company called Promessa that is working on a way to dehydrate and compost a body so it can be used as fertilizer for plants, which seems like a wonderful alternative to cremation.

Critical Evaluation:
Never have I been so disgusted and laughed so hard at a book in all my life. This was by far the most entertaining non-fiction book I've ever read, and it was about cadavers! Roach sets the tone of the whole book with the first few lines of the introduction: "The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you." Her quirky sense of humor had me reading things that normally I would have avoided, since I'm easily made queasy.

Beyond the humor, I learned more than I could have ever imagined about what happens to bodies after they die. I now know that corpses can fart, that no embalmer can really stop a body from decomposing, and that people really have no say in how their bodies are used after being willed to "science." For all they know, they will be teaching plastic surgeons how to perform nose jobs, or be implanted with experimental bullets that don't corrode. I also had no idea how modern surgery came to be and am incredibly thankful not to be living during medieval times. I would recommend this book to everyone but those very faint of heart. Older teens would probably get the most out of Roach's humor though.

Reader’s Annotation:
You might think you know about life after death, but what actually happens to your body? Mary Roach tackles the fascinating ways human cadavers have helped the living through the ages.

Information about the Author:
Mary Roach is a science writer from San Francisco. She has written for National Geographic, Salon.com, and Wired. Her other books are Spook: Science tackles the afterlife, and Bonk: The curious coupling of science and sex.

Genre: non-fiction

Curriculum Ties: none

Booktalking Ideas:
I would read the introduction to this book to give the audience a flavor of Roach's humor, then give a brief overview of the various topics she takes on in the different essays.

Reading Level/Interest Age:
This book would be appropriate for older teens, ages 17 and up.

Challenge Issues:
Roach herself says that some may take issue of her speaking about the dead in a flippant manner, although she explains that she is only talking about the state of being a cadaver, not the act of dying and the pain associated with it. And of course, the book is extremely graphic in describing the many tortures that cadavers are put through. I would explain the library's selection policy and give the challenger a complaint form to fill out.

Why I chose this book:
I read this book back when it first came out in 2003 and love it. Then recently I read an article in which a librarian said that in order to reach reluctant readers, books should be disgusting, gross, controversial, etc. and immediately this book popped into my mind. It's a great example of how entertaining non-fiction can be.