Death's Acre
Jun. 30th, 2007 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j_cheneyI finished reading Death's Acre today. I picked up this book hoping to learn more about corpses, and didn't really find it all that useful for that purpose. It is primarily the story of the man who founded the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee.
At times the writing reminds me a bit of Lake Woebegone, rambling and taking off on tangents regarding rattlesnakes and protests. For fans of Garrison Keillor, this is a definite plus. But while I like listening to GK on the radio, I find the style a bit harder to endure in a book--purely a matter of personal taste.
Anyhow, if you're interested in what provoked the man to litter corpses around an acre in Tennessee, then this is the book to read! If you're more interested in learning about the manners of the dead, I'd still recommend the excellent Corpse by Jessica Snyder Sachs (who also writes on the subject for Popular Science). Much more educational.
At times the writing reminds me a bit of Lake Woebegone, rambling and taking off on tangents regarding rattlesnakes and protests. For fans of Garrison Keillor, this is a definite plus. But while I like listening to GK on the radio, I find the style a bit harder to endure in a book--purely a matter of personal taste.
Anyhow, if you're interested in what provoked the man to litter corpses around an acre in Tennessee, then this is the book to read! If you're more interested in learning about the manners of the dead, I'd still recommend the excellent Corpse by Jessica Snyder Sachs (who also writes on the subject for Popular Science). Much more educational.
