Synopses & Reviews
The best-selling author of
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers now trains her considerable wit and curiosity on the human soul.
"What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness, persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my laptop?"
In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soulsearchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die. She begins the journey in rural India with a reincarnation researcher and ends up in a University of Virginia operating room where cardiologists have installed equipment near the ceiling to study out-of-body near-death experiences. Along the way, she enrolls in an English medium school, gets electromagnetically haunted at a university in Ontario, and visits a Duke University professor with a plan to weigh the consciousness of a leech. Her historical wanderings unearth soul-seeking philosophers who rummaged through cadavers and calves' heads, a North Carolina lawsuit that established legal precedence for ghosts, and the last surviving sample of "ectoplasm" in a Cambridge University archive.
Review
"[I]ntellectual, assiduously attentive, but the obvious undercurrent is 'People do the wackiest things!' And depending on your frame of mind, you find yourself either oddly entranced or wondering, 'Why am I listening to this?'" Kate Zernike, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Throughout, [Roach] is critical and witty e.g., speaking of postmortem 'recordings,' she says there is one of Chopin, 'who has, we learn, resumed composing following a short stint of decomposing.' Truly deft handling of the (mostly) daft." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Although deftly written and at times humorous, this book is superficial overall." Library Journal
Review
"The journey itself...is gripping, and Roach's witty asides liven up an already interesting and unusual read." Booklist
Review
"The author herself...is what makes this book shine. As in her previous book, she takes us into areas we might not go on our own. With her, we cover our eyes at the scary stuff, but then peek eagerly through our fingers." San Jose Mercury News
Review
"Ultimately, Spook is something of a letdown because it does not contain any big revelations. You keep turning the page hoping...Roach will chat with a dead relative or discover she is the reincarnation of someone from the 19th century." St. Petersburg Times
Review
"[D]ependably witty....Spook has great appeal on the basis of Ms. Roach's droll research. But it is afflicted with the same problem common to its spirit-world subjects: insubstantiality." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Review
"Roach is funny, lively, fair-minded and impartial and endlessly curious....Spook is enormous fun, but it doesn't settle any questions about the afterlife." Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Synopsis
In an attempt to find out what happens when people die, the author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that there is an afterlife.
Synopsis
"Equal parts Groucho Marx and Stephen Jay Gould, both enlightening and entertaining."--Sunday Denver Post & Rocky Mountain News
Synopsis
The best-selling author of ?and ? trains her considerable wit and curiosity on the human soul.
Synopsis
"What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that--the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my lap-top?" In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die.
About the Author
Mary Roach is the author of Stiff. Her writing has appeared in Salon, Wired, Outside, GQ, Discover, Vogue, and the New York Times Magazine. She lives in Oakland, California.