Book Review: Bonk
Subtitle: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
Listening to NPR one day in the lab, I happened to catch an interview of Mary Roach regarding a her new book Bonk. The interchange was quite witty and clever, with a good dose of humor thrown in, which made me think I might like to read a book by Mary Roach. So I put my name on the request list at the Berkeley Public Library for all three of the books by the author in question. The first book to become available was not the one I will review here, but Stiff: The curious lives of cadavers. Now don’t get me wrong, this is also a good book, as much as I could stomach of it. Amusing and interesting, the first few chapters that I got through were fun to read, though a little difficult if you’re prone to queasiness. I eventually had to give up reading it after an unfortunate attempt to read on BART (the hour trip to the airport to pick up my family when they came to visit caused a pretty bad bout of motion sickness, no doubt aided by the detailed descriptions of the treatment of corpses).
When I got the e-mail telling me Bonk was available for pick-up I was ready to give Mary Roach another shot. One of the problems of getting reserved books is that you can’t renew them, so you have a limited time to get them read. Luckily for me, I was able to read this particular book in good time, partially because the text is so engaging, and also because it’s just funny. Because this is a family site, I won’t go too much into the details of this particular volume. Being a scientist, I am always intrigued by the history behind science, and the often unexpected ways things converge. Mary Roach has a talent not only for quick witted comments and double entendres, but also for making the science interesting and giving proper perspective. This is definitely a book that will have you reading passages out loud to your significant other. Mary Roach does an excellent job of describing the atmosphere regarding scientific endeavors exploring areas of sexual research during different periods of history. And how can you not respect an author who is willing to participate in the subject; not only does she participate as a research participant in one study, she convinces her husband to fly to London and the two of them become subjects in a study that involves the couple in an MRI tube, cramped quarters. That’s one giving husband!
What is not surprising is that attitudes toward this sort of research haven’t really changed so much as we all might think. The problems facing reserachers who are interested in understanding the physiology and psychology of the sexual response are fundamental to scientists in general. They must be able to justify the research as a way to profit from people’s problems.
The main point I would like to convey is that this book is a very enjoyable read if you are not sqeamish about hearing the intimate details of the human reproductive system. It also shows how much is yet to be understood, in part because of the tricky nature of such research and the difficulty convicing people that the research is worthwhile and on the up and up. If you are not made uncomfortable by such subjects, you will laugh heartily at this book, you will chuckle under your breath at the jokes (especially those in the footnotes) and you will gasp at the sort of things people allow themselves to be subjected to in the name of science.