Customer Reviews

The Strange Case of the Walking Corpse: A Chronicle of Medical Mysteries, Curious Remedies,and Bizarre but True Healing Folklore

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is the most vague "medical" book I've ever read. The book description is also misleading. I thought this would be a book solely based on strangely-named syndromes and bizarre remedies. Oh sure, there are a few hazy descriptions of those, but then I'm treated to endless pages on breast augmentation, Botox, and endless definitions of parasites?

Nothing in this book is described in detail. It reads more like, "I heard about this guy who heard about this girl who...." The author's attempts at humor are scattered on every page and become very irritating, especially when she keeps trying to reinforce that these are serious diseases/syndromes and should not be made light of. (And given that this IS a "medical" book, not a "humor" book, I don't really understand the "comedy" attempts.)

Also, did ANY of the information in this book come from an actual hard copy source? The internet sources are listed on almost every other page and don't lend to credibility.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, especially anyone in the medical field, as half of the information in this book is common knowledge to anyone interested in medicine already. The entirety of this book could have been condensed to a few webpage links and you would have received the same (and probably more straight-foward and detailed) information. With such a good premise, I don't really understand the "cop-out" feeling of this book.

This was a waste of time and money. If I had recourse to read another book, I would have, but unfortunately this was all I had on hand in the hour or so that it took to read this disgrace to publishinghouses everywhere. I could have found a better-written and more entertaining book by scouring the pages of an elementary school Scholastic book-club order form. It is unconscionable that any good editor took a look at this and let it pass through to printing in such a state.
Just as a child writes a story in crayon about their dog and scurries off to show mommy, Nancy Butcher has thrown together all the internet research she could muster in a print form and declared for all the world to see "Look, I have built a book!"
When picking up a book about medical maladies, I expect a scholarly approach. I expect footnotes and references. Nancy Butcher gives me websites. This entire book seems to be culled from the misinformed and fallible pages of the internet, with not a reputable medical book to back it up. Where one would expect even an elementary discussion of the mechanisms that cause these maladies (in addition to Butcher's amusing anecdotes), she instead leaves me with the impression that her inner monologue while writing went something like "Eww!Gross! Let me include this!" Additionally, her fixation on sexual dysfunction gets rather old, and if not for this factor, I would gladly have passed the book on to a 10-year-old child, at whose reading level this book seems to sit. Ultimately, perhaps it was my fault, for I should have had the sense not to order a book sight unseen. I've learned my lesson, and now peruse all of my books in a real bookstore before buying online.

If you buy this book thinking that you are going to get the sort of insight into medical conditions that you would get from Oliver Sacks, you are going to be massively dissapointed. This book is best characterized as a thin and cursory catalog of some of the more unusual medical conditions around. As such, I guess it has a place, but there is little in it that merits the time to read it. I was left wondering how she found a publisher to print it.

Sadly, I have read this book; worse, paid for it (far overpriced for what it offers.) The chapter "Uncommon Diseases and Disorders" is well researched and written; the others have far too much of "According to <whatever> Web site..."; while I know from my own reading some of what's said can be verified elsewhere, as a software engineer I also know that there are too many web sites that are not to be trusted or not entirely trusted. The result was for me a cobbling together of fact & possible fact with alot sounding like urban legend; wait 'til it's in your local library.

I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. That being said, I was disappointed with this book's lack of depth. Many of the descriptions read like an unfinished thought. If you have any previous interest in "Strange Diseases and Conditions," you already know too much to count this book as a worthy investment. Not unlike a previous reviewer, I too was dissapointed by the copious references to websites. I am also curious as to why the author did not illustrate more examples, rather than directing the reader elsewhere. On the upside, it was a shockingly easy and quick read.

This book is amazing! It includes incredible anecdotes about strange medical curiosities and diseases -- many of which are so bizarre that even our disease-obsessed media culture has somehow managed to ignore them. For someone who reads a lot of newspapers and magazines, I thought I had heard of them all. Hardly! This book is a virtual encyclopedia of strange disorders from the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine to Cotard Syndrome, which is the source for the book's title. In the latter disease, patients are convinced that they are dead -- and insist, even to the point of contradiction, that they are corpses. Just when you think you've read the most bizarre tale, the next one beats it. And the author has included excellent references to document these disorders so that you can distinguish the fact from the fiction.

Bottom line: I couldn't put this book down. Organized into quick little chapters on topics such as parasites (you'll never guess the record for the longest parasite passed by a human being), sexual disorders, and deadly beauty treatments, the stories are written in easy-to-digest anecdotes and small vignettes. Not only is this a must-read book, but you'll also want to keep it around as a conversation piece for your guests, friends and family.

she is into these types of books.

After reading it, she said it left her wanting. Not high on the substance more on the sensational.

I have long enjoyed medical mysteries in the genre of Oliver Sack's "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" and "The Beetle of Aphrodite" by Howell and Ford, and was the mood for a good read in the same genre. This book, despite its clever title and good cover art was a sore disappointment. The author is a correspondent for [...], and while I find that a nice online site for finding recipes and general information, I don't expect to get that style from a published book. The book has little snippets of information, with seemingly no source material -- no backstories are added and often no names are involved -- the diseases are described but they aren't presented as mysteries at all. It reads like a catalogue rather than a book, and although there is a bibliography in the back, the feeling is that the author got all her information online, from questionable sources -- and you can get much the same info in an hour or two surfing on the web. The several pages devoted to bizarre sexual terms especially doesn't seem to fall under a medical mystery. Don't bother with this one. Really.

My review regards the reference made concerning the following passage.

"Another bizarre mental disorder Butcher describes is the Alice-in-Wonderland syndrome, in which a patient's sense of time, space and body image are distorted. People may appear tiny or patients may feel that part of their body shape or size has been altered."

It is in my opinion that Authors ought to make every attempt to do their research in order to not mislead the reader,by providing statements as seen above.It merely helps to perpetuate myths and reinforce stigmas.

For the record,the above "bizarre mental disorder" that Butcher so poorly defined,is actually a Neurological Symptom of Epilepsy/Seizure Disorder.Specifically,Temporal Lobe Epilepsy/TLE

Macrosomatosensory seizure,refers to one's perception of body image,hense,large,or humongous.

Microsomatosensory refers to the oppocite,tiny or small.

They are episodic in nature.Involvement may be one sided,both,or limited to a hand or foot.Similar symptoms may also be seen amongst particular Migraine Disorders as well.

Neither of which,can be termed as just "Another bizarre mental disorder",as Butcher suggests.

The term Alice In Wonderland refers to symptoms that were associated with Lewis Caroll's writings.He has been diagnosed since his death with having Epilepsy and Migraine's.However the debate is still out as to what exactly provoked Lewis Caroll's symptoms.

Unfortunately,Nancy Butcher also goes onto demonstrate her lack of knowledge in the area of medicine.She has depicted not only one seizure as bizarre but also goes onto state other symptoms as being of the AW type,which are actually, three different seizure types in an of themselves.

One is self perception of body image,hense altered state of body image,whereas the other,"in which a patient's sense of time"is affected,actually is another type of partial seizure and not always associated with Micro and Macro seizures.

Thirdly,"People may appear tiny" is yet another description of a partial seizure,where the envrionment becomes distorted,as opposed to the first mentioned,which actually is more of an internal event.

Nonetheless,they are all aspects of certain epilepsy syndromes.It is books such as these that are not researched totally,and it is not suprising that studies show just how prevelent, inaccuracies pertaining to medicine are widely published.Be it in books such as this one or any form of media. I feel that Nancy Butcher has written a modern day circus,complete with stigma's,myths and ignorance.This is very unfortunate.Jude Rouslin, Artist with Epilepsy(TLE)

I enjoyed reading this book very much. It was a conversation piece for my co-workers and me. I do, however, wish that it was longer and a little more detailed. Also, I feel Chapter 5 on Sexual Maladies could have been left out,