Long Live The Dead!

A few years ago, I had two clients in for pedicures. Giving two pedicures at once to friends is definitely more interesting than doing a pedi on a single client because the "professional" boundary between the clients and myself disappears. What I mean is, it usually turns into a party and things get talked about that would never get talked about if it was just one on one. What happens is, the two friends start the party and then inevitably, I, the "outsider" am drawn in. It was on one such occasion that these two clients, who were in the field of this topic, so to speak, were chatting about "the body farm".

I have always kind of been interested in death. Not for myself. Not so much about where we go after we die, either. I guess I'm not interested in "death" so much as I am interested in "dead". What a fascination, I think, it would be to be a mortician. Twenty years ago, I was able to cut and style a friends hair once, after he had died while serving an LDS mission. It was a very special opportunity for me that I still cherish all these years later.

Back to my clients. My interest was definitely piqued with the topic of the body farm, and I had to get involved. They said they were reading a book about death. I really love to read. I don't do it as much as I'd like because I just don't have the time as I'm so busy with work and my bad habit of watching too many movies, blogging, keeping important communications open through Facebook and getting enough healthful sleep, but the book was in my hands and purchased within a few days. It was such a great book that I decided to give you my book review.

This very enjoyable bedtime reading book is called Stiff, written by Mary Roach. This fantastic author writes about cadavers and how science (and others) utilizes them. She writes about crash test dummies (not the music group), doctors practicing face lifts on donated heads, cannibalism, and an extensive chapter about the body farm. The body farm is a 2 1/2 acre plot, in Tennessee, where they "plant" human corpses in different conditions such as in concrete or in water so they can study the decomposition and apply it to forensics. Everything from the maggots and flies to the vegetation is studied. This is an actual photo of a worker at the body farm with one of the less gruesome photos, I'm sure, that is available for showing.

There's also some good reading about the job of a mortician, how and why every orifice is sewed shut, embalming, what eye caps look like and how they secure the eyelids to remain closed. There's also a good chapter on a plane crash, how they figured out the mechanics of the crash and how they used the deceased passengers to help piece it all together. After many other chapters on wonderful morsels, she finishes the book with different ways of burial, cremation and composting.

This book is not at all unnerving except to maybe those with a very weak stomach, but it is worth reading! It is in my top favorite books to read of all time, and I have read it through 3 or 4 times, plus here and there for some "hit the spot" passages. Very well written, no shortage of witty humor, but respectful and very insightful. It's not a very big book and I read it in two days the first time through. I slowed down to savor it the second time around. I encourage everyone to read this book. If you take my recommendation, I want to hear your opinion.