304 pages
English language
Published May 8, 2004 by W. W. Norton & Company.
For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They’ve tested France’s first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender confirmation surgery, cadavers have helped make history in their quiet way. Stiff investigates the strange lives of our bodies postmortem and answers the question: What should we do after we die?
It certainly was interesting. Some people found it fascinating, while others discovered themselves to be squeamish and had to skip portions of the book. (Well, some of it certainly got pretty gross.) The witty language was mostly appreciated, for the sake of making the subject matter more palatable, but it could grate, or seem disrepectful.
