Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Mary Roach
It only took 3 years. When it came out in 2003, Stiff was feted as one of the year’s best. Eventually bought it in New York after it came out in paperback, and then it sat on my shelf in Beijing, then Singapore, before I finally got round to it.
And what an immensely enjoyable read it was. A book that makes you think about the possibilities after you die doesn’t come along everyday. Roach displays a consistently light touch, displays excellent comic timing, and ferrets out the most appropriate similes, turning what could have been a grim and/or morbid subject matter into an entertaining and hilarious book. Armed with curiosity and a lack of squeamishness, she ventures into labs, freezers, compost, to turn up facts about death and cadavers that most of us have simply never concerned ourselves with. She also shares generously with us the absurdities of yore with regard to medical science as well as of various maverick individuals and their experiments. Should have picked it up sooner.