Working Stiff

7/10 - easy read, interesting stuff! a bit gory for sure tho

As much as I enjoyed(?) the subject (don't judge me!), it just felt a bit repetitive after a while. For such a short book, it felt long.

The book covers a few years at the start of the doctor's career as a medical examiner but there's so much dialogue between her and colleagues I wonder if she wrote it all down at the time or if its just been made up to simulate what would have been discussed. It just felt a bit off.

Definitely worth a read, just perhaps written in a bit of an odd way for a nonfiction/memoir.

2.5, rounded up to three stars. For me, the redeeming factor was the doctor's experience during 9/11. Would have preferred to read an entire book about that.

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader as part of a quick takes post to catch up–emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.
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I really don't know what to say about this account of a forensic pathologist's training in NYC. Read it, listen to it, whatever. It's fascinating. It's a good reminder/way to learn that not all of forensic pathology is what you see on police procedurals (and even then...wow, fictionalized).

Her retelling of the reasons she left her surgical residency—and the fact that she's not the exception to the rule (beyond having the good sense to leave when so many don't), is one more reminder that we desperately need to overhaul medical training in this country.

But that's not what the book is about—it's about the day-to-day grind, the countless ways pathologists find evidence about what kills us, the hard job of getting answers for the bereaved, and yeah—there's the criminal justice side to it. I'm a little squeamish when it comes to real-life medical “stuff”, I'll watch a Tarantino marathon and not blink and the bucks of blood (well, maybe the dance scene in Reservoir Dogs some days), but I can't last 15 minutes in a medical documentary without my toes literally curling. There were moments listening to this that made me wonder—but there weren't many, and they passed quickly. If you're like me, stick with it.

I was all set to say this is a good book and well worth your time, and then we got to the penultimate chapter. Melinek wisely organized her story by topic, not chronology. Largely due to this chapter (I'd guess), because you want it at the end so it doesn't dwarf the rest. She started her residency a few weeks before September 11, 2001. I'm not even going to try to describe it. The whole book could've been written about this and the immediate aftermath.

This book is not for the squeamish or faint of heart.
But if you have a macabre fascination with the worst things that can happen to someone (for me, it makes the world a little less scary to know of all the bad things) and/or an interest in science, then you'll probably really enjoy this.
It is not a light read, but Melinek manages to make the moments of hope poignant. The latter half of the book is particularly affecting, as she was a medical examiner in NYC during 9/11. It is hard to fathom the things that she saw.
All in all, this book made me appreciate the work medical examiners do. It seems they often serve as a source of peace and comfort that few people realize.

I'm a morbid creature that likes to read about death & shit. So, when I came across this book I was really excited to read it.

Judy Melinek was a Medical Examiner in New York city from (roughly) 2001-2003. During her time there, she performed autopsies on 262 bodies.

This book had me hooked from the beginning. It flowed really well & was upbeat for a book based solely on death. I was worried that she would use too many medical terms and I would be completely lost, but while she did use the correct phrasing, she also explained everything in a way that the reader would understand.

It was really cool to hear about her cases. She had performed autopsies on all kinds of deaths such as: natural, accidental, suicide, homicide, & even mass casualty. I really enjoyed hearing about the homicides because it was like little mysteries thrown in there. She helped bring many of the victims families justice by working with the police to bring down the killers.

Everyone that's old enough to remember 9/11 has a story of where they were & what they were doing when those towers went down. Me? I was in 3rd grade and the teachers turned on the television to let us watch it for a while. We were too young to really understand what was going on, so when the towers started falling, they took us all to the gym to let us play. I remember that I had just started playing when my mom came and signed me out from school. She's really religious and seriously thought that the world was ending. My husband's birthday is actually on 9/11. He was also in the 3rd grade but no one had signed him out of school early because they were planning a surprise party when he had gotten out of school. Back then, people still used camcorders to record special occasions. Years later, I watched that recording & I have to say that it was the saddest party ever. Everyone was somber & stone-faced while he blew the candles out and opened up presents. The whole time, the 9/11 news coverage was playing in the background.

Judy Melinek told us the entire story of what happened to her on 9/11. Her and the team of medical examiners that she worked with put in long hours trying to identify every person that came to them. They rarely got whole bodies.

The tone of the book did indeed shift at this point. Reading about the world trade center (or any mass casualty) is very emotional. It made me see all of the people that helped with the aftermath in a different light.

To me, death is a very fascinating thing and if you think so as well, then I strongly recommend this book. I will warn you that it does go into detail, so if you're squeamish just be aware of that.

Very interesting. But pretty gruesome in the descriptions so if you are sensitive to blood and trauma, this is not the book for you.
Learned some about anatomy, and that in real life, the work of the medical examiner takes a long time.
She had the misfortune of working in New York City through the 9/11 and a plane crash within the same month.
It's written as a sequence of anecdotes, there isn't a flow to the stories.
It's more like a collection of related short stories rather than a novel.
It's non-fiction of course, I made the comparison to give a sense of what reading it is like.
But with the subject matter, that works pretty well.