Oh MaRo, what am I going to do with you? Stiff was so promisingly hilarious, but Spook and now Bonk have left me a little cold. And I don't think I'm the only one. EVERYone loved Stiff, and NO one loved Spook, and I haven't HEARD from anyone about Bonk. We've lost that lovin feeling..
But for why? Let us dissect. Roach is at her most entertaining in footnotes like this one: 'A sea cucumber under assault expels the organs of its digestive tract through its anus (and then grows another set). Given that the sea cucumber's greatest threat is Asian cuisine, this 'autoevisceration' - essentially gutting yourself and saving the chef the bother - probably needs to be rethought as a self-defense.' An amusing fact well written (also, totally irrelevant, which is why it is a footnote). The animal kingdom is chock-a-block with amusing facts, because animals do such crazy things! Expels digestive organs from anus!
.Humans are also ridiculous animals. The things we have done in the name of sex! Or spooks! Or stiffs! And so maybe Bonk focuses too much on the how of the doink, which lends itself less to inherent hilarity and for which the jokes are maybe more forced. Because eventually Roach gets into the nitty gritty of SexScience Through the Centuries, and how they used to take a dead man's balls and implant them in live men to fix things like impotence and high blood pressure and 'at one point...curing a twenty-two-year-old youth of, among other afflictions, the "frequent writing of incoherent, rambling dissertations on architecture." It seemed no ailment stood strong in the face of another man's testis.' The human's activities are quality material, its biology maybe weaker stuff, and while Roach shines at working with cedar, it seems she struggles with plywood.
.But then my theory crumbles to bits when I go re-read my review of Spook, which was apparently all up ons science's mishaps, and that didn't go over well either. So maybe I shouldn't quit my day job.
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Like Spook, Bonk was grood (something more than 'good' but less than 'great'). MR is still my poor-man's Anne Lamott, and I will keep reading whatever she cranks out, but I might not recommend her so hard like I do.
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Seven caterpillars.
I did not like Bonk so well as Stiff and I have not read Spook (but of course I own it.) I do like the cover of Bonk an awfully lot though. (And I did review Bonk on my blog, but am too lazy to go look for it- I said what I just said, only in more words. Oh, I think maybe I've had too much coffee today.)
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way. I loved Stiff--it was so funny--yet informative!
ReplyDeleteSpook was dull and so was Bonk. Too bad.
I'll still try Roach again, just because I loved Stiff so much.
Bonk left me a little cold, too. A good friend of mine — a scientist like me — gave up on Stiff part way through, and neither of us liked Roach's TED talk about orgasms, so I'm not inclined to read her other offerings.
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