Who is Mary Roach from Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and what is their importance? Stiff:_The_Curious_Lives_of_Human_Cadavers English & Literature Mary Roach | Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Mary Roach is the author and, to a lesser extent, a character. According to the dust jacket, Roach has a background in journalism, having written for Salon, Wired, Outside, GQ, Discover, Vogue and the New York Times Magazine. Her writing style, at least in Stiff, is more characteristic of op-ed work rather than traditional journalism. Roach's tendency to write in the first person suggests that she makes little pretense of objectivity, instead preferring a more personal engagement with the material. Stiff is as much about the author as it is anything else.