Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Norton
Reviewed by Melanie Jennings
copyright 2003 All Rights Reserved

Nothing quite grabs your attention like a book about corpses. Mary Roach’s, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (Norton), explores "the sometimes odd, often shocking, always compelling things cadavers have done." If you ever thought donating your body to science meant just a boring trip to the local medical school’s anatomy class, Roach invites you to tag along with her as she explores the ways in which cadavers are actually used. From crash test dummies strapped into cars, to experiments to debunk the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, the after-life of the body donated to science is really quite adventurous.

While the medical students Roach writes about in one chapter display a solemn and respectful attitude toward the corpses they work on (going so far as to have a memorial service for the group of cadavers dissected over the course of a semester), the writer herself applies a more Calvinistic approach to corpses: why should they go to waste when they can be so useful?

Cadavers are our superheros: They brave fire without flinching, withstand falls from tall buildings and head-on car crashes into walls. You can fire a gun at them or run a speedboat over their legs, and it will not faze them. Their heads can be removed with no deleterious effect. They can be in six places at once [in pieces]. I take the Superman point of view: What a shame to waste these powers, to not use them for the betterment of humankind.

That said, this is not a book for the squeamish. Roach’s style is ironic, very ironic. She delights in the absurd, and where cadavers are concerned, never lacks for moments of the utterly surreal. For example, if you’ve ever wondered how plastic surgeons learn their trade, Roach’s trip to their classroom provides just the kind of material that begins to seem fairly typical by the time you’re finished with Stiff:

The human head is of the same approximate size and weight as a roaster chicken. I have never before had occasion to make the comparison, for never before today have I seen a head in a roasting pan. But here are forty of them, one per pan, resting face-up on what looks to be a small pet-food bowl….The heads have been put in roasting pans for the same reason chickens are put in roasting pans: to catch the drippings.

To her credit, Roach doesn’t let you forget that cadavers provide incredibly valuable data, for example, to forensic and ballistics researchers. Experts of the former use cadavers to solve crimes and determine, for example, just how long John Doe was buried in that shallow grave and how he was murdered. To determine what happens to human tissue when a bullet plows through it and to test the claims of bullet-proof vest manufacturers, (among other things), ballistics researchers have the unenviable task of shooting bullets into cadavers. In her irreverent style, Roach ponders the morally vexing questions that lie at the foundation of ballistics research:

It’s fair to say that when people donate remains, either their own or those of a family member, they usually don’t care to know the grisly details of what might be done with them. And that if you did tell them the details, they might change their minds and withdraw consent….Ballistic studies are especially problematic. How do you decide it’s okay to cut off someone’s grandfather’s head and shoot it in the face? Even when the reason you are doing that is to gather data to ensure that innocent civilians who are hit in the face with nonlethal bullets won’t suffer disfiguring fractures? Moreover, how do you bring yourself to carry out the cutting off and shooting of someone’s grandfather’s head?

Much of Stiff is this funny–if you’re sick enough to find it funny.

But say you don’t want a roasting pan to be your final resting place. How about the refreshing and organic alternative of human compost? Roach’s final chapter, "Out of the Fire and into the Compost Bin," profiles Susanne Wiigh-Masak, whose revolutionary human compost idea just might take off in Sweden. For many, the idea of a tree in the yard nourished by a loved one is more palatable than rotting in an airtight box six feet under (or getting your face shot into by ballistics researchers). How Roach meets and treats the truly compelling characters whose work deals with the dead is at turns humorous, disturbing, revealing, and ultimately, redeemable.

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