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Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
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(Hardcover)
Average Customer Rating: 
(1 ratings)
- Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
- Pub. Date: April 2008
- ISBN-13: 9780393064643
- Sales Rank: 872
- 288pp
Synopsis
The best-selling author of Stiff turns her outrageous curiosity and infectious wit on the most alluring scientific subject of all: sex.
The study of sexual physiology—what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better—has been a paying career or a diverting sideline for scientists as far-ranging as Leonardo da Vinci and James Watson. The research has taken place behind the closed doors of laboratories, brothels, MRI centers, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs, and Alfred Kinsey's attic.
Mary Roach, "the funniest science writer in the country" (Burkhard Bilger of The New Yorker), devoted the past two years to stepping behind those doors. Can a person think herself to orgasm? Can a dead man get an erection? Is vaginal orgasm a myth? Why doesn't Viagra help women—or, for that matter, pandas? In Bonk, Roach shows us how and why sexual arousal and orgasm, two of the most complex, delightful, and amazing scientific phenomena on earth, can be so hard to achieve and what science is doing to slowly make the bedroom a more satisfying place. 16 illustrations.
The New York Times - Pamela Paul
In her previous books, Stiff and a follow-up, Spook, Mary Roach set out to make creepy topics (cadavers, the afterlife) fun. In Bonk…she takes an entertaining topic and showcases its creepier side. And then she makes the creepy funny. Intended as much for amusement as for enlightenment, Bonk is Roach's foray into the world of sex research, mostly from Alfred Kinsey onward, but occasionally harking back to the ancient Greeks and medievals (equally unenlightened). Roach belongs to a particular strain of science writer; she's interested less in scientific subjects than in the ways scientists study their subjects—less, in this case, in sex per se than in the laboratory dissection of sex.
More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
Journalist and former Salon.com columnist Mary Roach didn't leave readers and critics cold with her first book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. In fact, the comical-yet-scientific look at the "life" of the dead body throughout history earned her a spot in the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program.
More About the AuthorCustomer Reviews
Number of Reviews: 1
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(yawn)
A reviewer, A reviewer, 03/01/2008
I enjoyed reading Mary Roach's earlier book, “Stiff”, which was an entertaining and informative romp through the history of scientists' uses of cadavers. Granted, it was informative in the way that trivia questions are – fun to discuss over cocktails, but not really helpful to know. Still, it is interesting to pause and think about aspects of life – or death – that usually are beyond our concern. So, I was intrigued by “Bonk” I expected Mary Roach would easily rise to the challenge. She never quite got it up. Sure, it was informative. But after reading about one too many sex experiments involving primates, the thrill was gone. Since the subject became dull rather quickly, Roach filled the text with too many jokes – and some of them fell flat. 'Some of them were downright nasty, such as the footnote in chapter 9 about a young boy being killed in an MRI machine. What could possibly be funny about that?' After a while, the forced humor and repetition of sex talk reminded me of 5th grade locker room conversation. She also tried to make the text interesting by giving the reader portraits of the scientists involved in the research. The caricatures were either too silly or too scary for the latter, she had to repeatedly make an effort to defend them as real scientists, not voyeurs. Adding these characters to the locker room talk and lame humor hardly made for an entertaining read. You can only try to be funny about body parts for so long, before the reader just starts wishing Roach would hurry up and finish. The stories that could have been interesting, such as when she relates her own involvement in some of the more tame experiments, are about as titillating as a cold shower. Worse than that, the book doesn't seem to go anywhere. The reader is up to the eyeballs in scientists and genitals, but there seems to be no point to the story, except to say that there have been some scientists that have been interested in genitals. Well, isn't that a thrilling thesis? In the end, I was reminded of something that Raymond Chandler wrote, comparing alcohol to love: “The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off.” In “Bonk”, the preface – entitled 'foreplay', of course – draws you in. You'll read a chapter or two, but then you'll wish you'd said, “Not tonight, dear I have a headache.” It's just routine – and if the author isn't going to try to make it interesting and new, then the reader might as well just roll over and get some sleep. At least you'll still respect yourself in the morning.
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