Stiff by Mary Roach

“Stiff” is a macabre, compelling, witty investigation of the postmortem. For such a small book, Roach covers a broad scope of accumulated knowledge regarding our dead-selves, its history, and purpose. She treats taboo topics with a sensitive hand and the intense, painstaking attention to detail apparent in the exposition easily lends her major authority on the topic. Mary Roach aims to shed light on the achievements and involvement of cadavers in scientific advancement. With two-thousand years of history to sift through, she manages to highlight the most significant (and most unique) examples with a deftness and awareness that is amazing.
 

Roach approaches life and death and the strange topics that most would find distasteful with a light touch and a humorous voice. Her little sidebar footnotes are terrific and often funny to read. Throughout the book, she sprinkles her opinions and confusions and own ideas, giving the prose a distinctly living taste. But never is Roach disrespectful to the cadavers or those who donate their bodies, which I think is an important factor that makes this book popular.

I love reading nonfiction literature. It is a breadth of knowledge that is as valuable to human imagination as great fiction. I was skeptical when I first decided to open “Stiff.” A book about cadavers isn’t my regular cup of tea, but I’ve come to realize that what we need is to step out of our comfort zones once and a while. I think we’d all be a little mildly, delightfully surprised at what find. For example, I pleasantly learned that cadavers had a hand in testing the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, in France’s first guillotines, heart transplants, solving the mystery of the TWA Flight 800, and the first blood transfusions. In their silent, unassuming, and unpretentious way, cadavers have been working to make life better for those left behind.