The Chick and the Dead

 Book 70 of my 2020 Reading Challenge

read from October 19 - November 9

The Chick and the Dead: Tales of a Life in Death

by Carla Valentine

Summary (via the book jacket)

published 2017

A day in the life of Carla Valentine - technical curator of one of the world's most famous pathology museums, mortician, and "death professional" - is not your average day. She spent ten years training and working as an anatomical pathology technologist, where the mortuary slab was her desk and examine human corpses her daily task. Beginning with the first cut of a body through to the heart, abdomen, and brain, each chapter considers an aspect of the autopsy process alongside Carla's own life, shedding light on what the living can learn from the dead, as well as exploring cultural attitudes toward death and afterlife.

The Chick and the Dead explores themes of life and death, touching on more controversial aspects, including the relationship between death and sex and the toll this line of work takes on the living. Carla Valentine reveals just what it's like to live a life immersed in death. Fascinating and insightful, The Chick and the Dead exposes the truth about what happens when the mortuary doors swing shut or the lid of the coffin closes.

My Opinion

2 stars

I found this book to be jumbled in multiple ways.  The book wasn't personal enough to be a memoir but not general enough to be clinical.  Also, the writing itself jumps around - stories from different times in her life are told at the same time without a clear timeline or anything indicating what is a flashback and what is "present day".

What I liked about the book was how respectful the author was when talking about death and the people she took care of.  It also was more in-depth about processes than anything I've read.