One of My Favorite Books!

An old review of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach:

Where has this book been all my life? :) As someone interested in this sort of thing (death, the funeral industry, forensics), I was surprised that I had not heard of this book until recently. And I must say that it was exactly what I expected it to be. Roach takes a look at how corpses serve a purpose after death - their "life after life." From serving as med school gross anatomy tools to crash test "dummies," human cadavers can play important roles in the work of scientists, doctors, and engineers in their collective quest to keep the living safe and healthy. The ultimate cadaver post-life work is that of an organ donor - a single individual can save the lives of multiple others. But Roach doesn't just cover the "typical" cadaveric endeavors. For instance, she describes a visit to the "Body Farm" at the University of Tennessee, where donated cadavers are placed out in the open so that scientists can study rates and types of decay - with the goal of better forensic work. She also discusses other methods for preserving (plastination, as used in the work of the man behind the "Body Worlds" exhibits) and disposing of bodies (liquification, fertilizer), including a few taboo subjects (cannibalism). Overall, this book is tremendously entertaining; Roach is a very funny writer, but she manages to still respect her, um, subjects. Probably not a good book for the squeamish, though - especially the chapter on decay (don't ask about the "haciendas")