Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab
Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab Books
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A hauntingly tender memoir of the relationship between a cadaver named Eve and the first-year medical student who cuts her open
Christine Montross was a nervous first-year medical student, standing outside the anatomy lab on her first day of class, preparing herself for what was to come. Entering a room with stainless-steel tables topped by corpses in body bags is shocking no matter how long you’ve prepared yourself, but a weird thing happened when Montross met her cadaver. Instead of being disgusted by her, she was absolutely intrigued-intrigued by the person the woman once was, humbled by the sacrifice she had made in donating her body to science, fascinated by the weird, unsettling beauty of the human form. They called her Eve. This is the tale of Montross and Eve-the student and the theme-and the surprising relationship that grew between them.
Body of Work is a mesmerizing, seldom seen glimpse into the day-to-day life of a medical student-yet one that follows naturally in the footsteps of recent highly successful literary renderings of the mysteries of medicine such as Atul Gawande’s Complications: A General practitioner’s Notes on an Imperfect Science. Christine Montross was a poet long before she became a doctor and brings an uncommon perspective to the emotional difficulty of the first year of medical school-the daunting task of remaining clinical and detached even as in the anatomy lab and the struggle with the line you’ve crossed by violating another’s body once you place it.
Montross was so affected by her experience with Eve that she undertook to learn more about the history of cadavers and the study of anatomy. She visited an autopsy lab in Ireland and the University of Padua in Italy where Vesalius, a forefather of anatomy, once studied; she learned about body snatchers and grave-robbers and anatomists who practiced their work on live criminals. Her disturbing, often entertaining anecdotes enrich this exquisitely crafted memoir, endowing an eerie beauty to the world of a doctor-in-training. Body of Work is an unforgettable examination of the mysteries of the human body and a remarkable look at our relationship with both the living and the dead.
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I found this book to be wonderfully insightful. It gave me a a different perspective on the actual corporal body even as tying it all together in emotionally relevant bow.
Rating: 4 / 5
I read a review of this book in the Sunday paper. I’m not sure what made me order this book. It was fascinating-a bit slow but OK
Rating: 4 / 5
It’s certainly an fascinating concept for a book–observe the administer of first-year anatomy lab at a medical school and watch the fur glide. There are a lot of excellent details here from Montross on both what the administer means in historical terms as well as how it affects those who do it. But, Montross’ prose when it comes to her self-observation is too simplistic to carry this book much beyond average. She writes in the tone of an emotional fourteen year-ancient on an online journal complaining about how someone has wronged her–the descriptions are too emotionally-biased, too overdone, too…much to do anything other than get in the way. But if you go quickly through these parts, there’s a lot of excellent to see here as well. Mildly not compulsory.
Rating: 3 / 5
This book was surprisingly an simple read. Something I didn’t guess because of the theme matter. The author presents her feelings in a companionate and down to earth way, something I wish all doctors would do! All in all, this book deals with a heavy theme, but it’s fascinating and not at all too clinical or over your head. I would urge it.
Rating: 4 / 5
I was swayed by the reviews written here to pick up this book. It looked like an fascinating read. But I was only able to read part of this book before I had to give up bored. The contents are in no way disturbing especially if you watch any medical dramas or have read other medical history texts. It is quite like reading the blog of a teenager, very light and small content. The original parts written by the author are dull and may possibly reasonably of been written by someone with a excellent thoughts or maybe by someone who had some thoughts. The other filler pieces that make up this drivel appear to be lifted from other texts or possibly Wikipedia. We also get some travelogue padding thrown in with a trip to Italy. I am sure most people who would be attracted to this book know the tale of Burke and Hare or the body snatchers of ancient. Maybe they even already appreciate the work of Galen or Vesalius.
I feel the text was probably written as some sort of cathartic exercise by the author to expunge the demons of yucky anatomy. Maybe a worthy exercise but I doubt it was necessary to publish the scrawl, better it should of remained a private document.
Unfortunately I cannot give it 0 stars.
Rating: 1 / 5