alldaffer's review
3.0
Even though this book is about dissecting a human body, the most compelling scene for me was near the end when the author's grandfather comes into his wife's hospital room to cheer her up after her recent stroke.
Also, just like the author, I want to know how a person (other than Kyle XY) doesn't have a belly button.
Also, just like the author, I want to know how a person (other than Kyle XY) doesn't have a belly button.
circularcubes's review
5.0
This book is astoundingly beautiful. Gruesome in some ways, yes, but really beautiful. It captures the awe and mystery of the human body, the unnaturalness of breaking down a human body, and how doing so is vital if one wants to understand how a body works, so that live bodies can one day be brought back to wholeness and health. I was so touched by how Montross describes her relationship with Eve, a body she comes to know intimately while in the course of a human anatomy course in medical school. I loved the history tidbits that Montross ties into her narrative, and her own relationships and friendships both inside and outside of the lab. I almost cried at the end of the book, when Montross describes how her grandparents dealt with their illnesses late in life. Honestly, I probably would have cried if I wasn't reading through that bit in a shared office on my lunch break. I will say, though... this book is not one to be read over meals. But read it anyway, because it's beautiful, and you'll come out of it more appreciative for the human body, and modern medicine, and the compassion that can exist between two strangers, even when one of them is no longer alive.
fdterritory's review
2.0
It's certainly an interesting concept for a book--observe the process of first-year anatomy lab at a medical school and watch the fur fly. There are a lot of good details here from Montross on both what the process means in historical terms as well as how it affects those who do it. However, 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-old on an online journal complaining about how someone has wronged her--the descriptions are too emotionally-loaded, too extravagant, too...much to do anything other than get in the way. But if you move quickly through these parts, there's a lot of good to see here as well. Mildly recommended.
raven_morgan's review
4.0
Once upon a time, I wanted to be a doctor. That didn't happen, and I ended up in genetics instead, but spent a year of my undergrad work studying human anatomy. We never dissected any human cadavers, but we worked a lot with specimens that the techs had dissected. Reading this, I kept on having a visceral memory of how, when we walked out of the anatomy labs, everything we owned smelled like formalin.
Vividly written and eye-opening to a lot of the emotional and psychological stuff that people go through during medical training.
Vividly written and eye-opening to a lot of the emotional and psychological stuff that people go through during medical training.
muheb's review against another edition
5.0
Instantly became a favorite.
A great memoir about a very sensitive subject, and from a sensitive person.
As a doctor and a cardiac surgeon this book touched me deeply.
I felt like i have written it myself with all these feelings and thoughts.
In the anatomy lab we dissect cadavers as we should do, but more importantly we dissect our lives, our bodies, our existence.
This memoir is very personal, deeply personal and existential that it touches every reader.
I will read it again and again, as you should.
A great memoir about a very sensitive subject, and from a sensitive person.
As a doctor and a cardiac surgeon this book touched me deeply.
I felt like i have written it myself with all these feelings and thoughts.
In the anatomy lab we dissect cadavers as we should do, but more importantly we dissect our lives, our bodies, our existence.
This memoir is very personal, deeply personal and existential that it touches every reader.
I will read it again and again, as you should.