After We Die: The Life and Times of the Human Cadaver
"Highly readable and offers several examples of Cantor's wry sense of humor. It also reveals an extraordinary depth and breadth of research and advances a number of serious conclusions." --Journal of Legal Medicine"A fascinating book, written in a lively, accessible style." --Choice"Although death is a universal experience, few of us have looked beyond the simple choice between burial and cremation. For those who share the author's curiosity, Mr. Cantor has provided an informative, thorough, and often entertaining explication of the fate of our bodies." --New York Journal of Books"Norman Cantor has taken a subject that could be dull and dry and written an extensive and interesting account of the various customs and practical questions that might arise concerning the care of a corpse.... Cantor's ingenuity is manifested by his ability to present lively examples and intriguing anecdotes." --Health Progress"Cantor's curiosity about the dead is catching. A moment's dip into this book can easily turn into an afternoon as he brings together -- with clarity, insight, and, dare we admit, some entertaining value -- all of the current major legal, ethical, and social issues regarding death." --Lois Shepherd, professor of law and biomedical ethics, University of Virginia"After We Dieis an honest, insightful, and informative look at how the body is handled after death and how much of this handling can be preplanned by those who wish to control their own fate. It challenges our aversion to the corpse, or more specifically our thoughts about our own corpsehood, and convinces us that the moral of the story is to articulate in advance our preferences for its disposition." --Christine Quigley, author ofThe Corpse: A HistoryandModern Mummies: The Preservation of the Human Body in the Twentieth Century