Synopsis
The author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers explores how science has attempted to study our post-mortem fate. Roach traces early psychical research to current US investigations of near-death experiences and case studies by the International Centre for Survival and Reincarnation Researches. The title belies her desire to get scientific validation for free-floating consciousness. Referenced but not indexed. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
The New York Times - Janet Maslin
How serious is Ms. Roach in wondering about life after death? Not very. She appears more concerned with comic effects than cosmic ones, and she is constantly on the lookout for entertainingly bizarre details and turns of phrase…Spook has great appeal on the basis of Ms. Roach's droll research. But it is afflicted with the same problem common to its spirit-world subjects: insubstantiality. Although she does her best to avoid what the book calls "the Big Shrug," she is not always able to learn much from the string of research outings described here.