Bonk by Mary Roach
It’s been awhile since I’ve read some non-fiction until I recently read Mary Roach’s Bonk. Well, I shouldn’t say ‘read’ because I didn’t finish it. This was a recent find at my local library and I thought, “What the hell. I’ve heard of Mary Roach. I like sex. This could be interesting.” I realized three library renewals into it that I was then saying, “What the hell was I thinking?!?” After the ‘Penis’ chapter, I called it quits.
This book has so much potential: “The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex” reads the subtitle. I am a curious person. I enjoy sex. Maybe I could enjoy it on another, possibly objective, level. Not that I had any great expectations – I wasn’t expecting Anais Nin or anything – there would be science involved after all. However, I was not expecting to be grossed out (and I do not consider myself a prude). Nor was I expecting to feel like Roach was at my bedside.
I think it was the aforementioned ‘Penis’ chapter that did me in. I wish I had quotes (I’ve long since returned the book to the library) but, really, on second thought it’s probably better that I didn’t. Let’s just say she witnesses a penile implant and let’s also just say I’m so glad I don’t have a penis. (To be fair, I didn’t read the ‘Vagina’ chapter so maybe I wouldn’t want to have one of those either.) I now know too much how penile implants work and the how much physical agony those guys have to go through to get one.
I’ll admit there were some interesting bits. There is still a stigma attached to doing sex research, even in this Cialis-in-the-tub age. There are often lots of euphemisms used in presenting research topics for grant moneys and to universities. I guess there can be a fine line between objective and perverted (think Kinsey – also very interesting). However, these few gems were intruded by footnotes and asides that constantly took me away from the original topic – usually something tangentially related to the main text. This happened so often that I felt I was reading two books: the one Roach was writing and the one with random factoids that Roach wanted to write.
Needless to say that science plus sex should not be disappointing. Roach’s voice is jovial, like a friend is telling you something funny that she read in the tabloids in the grocery line. But I don’t want to constantly read about the boy who was born a bat. I don’t need to be shocked to be entertained – even only mildly. Roach started out with a great topic but didn’t realize that you can have too much of a good thing.