Mary Roach

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.

Ever the pragmatist, Roach has a utilitarian rather than spiritual view of death. In Chapter 7 she is not shy about expressing her distaste for religious propaganda, nor is she hesitant to champion the humanist cause of reducing human suffering. Roach clearly sees the living as more significant than the dead. In her mind, the cadavers...