“Stiff” follows the history of human cadavers for the past 2,000 years. After the death of her mother, Mary Roach became very interested in death and especially what happens after death. Cadavers are sliced and diced, hung and strung, and frozen and burned, sometimes for posterity sake and other times for scientific advancement.
Ms. Roach traveled across the country and around the world to research the history of the dead and their contributions after life. From the body farm at the University of Tennessee (represent!) to a crematorium in Japan who supposedly cut off bits of cadavers to sell to local food establishment, the endless facts of life after death keep on coming.
The approach of this book is one of a journalist with a sense of humor. She takes everything with a grain of salt and asks the “experts” goofy questions that an average person might be interested in such as, “Why does a man’s penis get larger after he dies?” (Spoiler: The answer has to do with bugs and gas.)
Many of us think about what happens to our soul when we die, but how many of us think about what happens to our body? Your body can be used for scientific advancement, it can be compressed and a tree can grow from your ashes, or you can go traditional and decompose in the ground. Regardless, I came out on the other side of “Stiff” with a new plan for my body after death and a plethora or interesting information that I have been uncomfortably been sharing with family and friends at inconvenient times.
