Pushing 30 Reading Challenge — His Dark Materials

15 Monday Dec 2014

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books, fantasy, Pushing 30 Reading Challenge, Reviews

I really dislike Buzzfeed, so I want to make it clear that this post (or series of posts, we’ll see how far I get) is in no way condoning Buzzfeed or their clickbait articles. But a friend referred me to an article of theirs (not an article, actually, a list is more accurate) boasting “65 Books You Need to Read in Your 20s.” (Not including a link, because suck it BF.)

Well, I’M in my 20s, I thought. Let’s see how well I’ve done on this OH SO ESSENTIAL list of literature. Turns out, not very. I’ve read maybe three books on the list, and most of them I’ve never even heard of. I consider myself pretty well-read, so this made me a little angry. Why did I need to read these books? What was so special about them? I’ll show you, Buzzfeed, I thought. I’ll read all those goddamn books, you just watch, and they’ll probably be stupid anyway.

Yeah, I’m really not sure what I’m trying to prove with this one, but I’ve been cruising through books lately and continually looking for suggestions on what to read. With a year and a half left in my 20s, it seems like an interesting challenge to take on, at least to see how far I can get.

It just so happened that at the time I perused this list, I was actually re-reading one of the books (a trilogy, actually) that was on it. So if I’m going to document my journey, that seems like a good place to start.

I read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy for the first time when I was about 14/15. It pulled me in from the first chapter and kept me captivated all the way through to the last sentence. It made me feel emotions I’d never felt before, bringing me the greatest happiness I’d ever gotten from literature while simultaneously breaking my heart into little pieces that I struggled to make sense of in the days and weeks after I finished it. It’s been a favorite of mine since, and I’ve had to rebuy all three books multiple times when they’ve been lost to roommates, friends or relatives with whom I wanted to share the complex joy the story brought into my life.

The narrative of the first novel, The Golden Compass (originally titled Northern Lights when it was published in the UK), follows Lyra, an orphan from a universe much like our own yet notably different in several ways. When her best friend is abducted by a group rumored to be doing terrible experiments on children, she goes to great lengths to rescue him. She befriends gypsy sailors, witches and armored polar bears in a quest that takes her into the secretive, bitter cold of the icy North. On her journey she ends up involved in plans and politics far beyond her comprehension, yet in which she is destined to play an important role. She leaves her own universe in search of answers and (Book #2, The Subtle Knife) ends up meeting Will, a boy who hails from our own world and finds himself in trouble as he searches for clues to the whereabouts of his missing father. The children agree to help each other and find that their objectives have more in common than they ever would have guessed. When Will inadvertently becomes the bearer of a knife that can cut portals into other universes, they gradually come to realize that their actions may have great consequences across many worlds. Book #3 (The Amber Spyglass)…well, a lot happens and I really have no idea how to summarize it without giving spoilers, but it involves journeying to the world of the dead, a mysterious substance colloquially referred to as Dust which has some unknown connection to human consciousness, and a war against (or to liberate) Heaven itself.

I thought, perhaps, that reading it as an older adult (I did read it another time at about 20/21) might not have the same effect it had when I was young. Perhaps my raging hormones and anger at the world caused these novels to affect me much more then than they would now. I was wrong. It was just as heartbreaking this time around, leaving me, as I turned the last page, feeling like I was saying goodbye to my greatest friends.

This is not to say that the books are without flaws. Particularly in the third book, some characters just seem too pure to believable, and their adversaries seem too willing to be bowed by that purity. Plans seem to go too perfectly and dialogue seems, at certain points, too forced or elegant to be genuine. But at no point did these flaws take me out of the story, and they didn’t bother me enough to sully my love for the trilogy as a whole. I really can’t say enough how much I love this story.

Perhaps it seems that I’m ignoring the elephant in the room. The name of said elephant is Religion. These books received quite a bit of criticism for allegedly promoting an atheist, or even anti-theist, agenda. The outrage over this went so far as to have religious groups picketing screenings of the film adaptation of The Golden Compass. It’s true that Philip Pullman is an outspoken atheist and his trilogy contains strong atheist undertones — after all, one of the supporting characters literally sets out to kill God. The church and its priests are constantly working against the protagonists, and their aims and beliefs are portrayed as misguided at best, malicious at worst. Where the main characters are almost too pure, the agents of the Magisterium (thinly-veiled portrayal of the Catholic church) are almost too one-dimensionally evil. Is it still a great story? Absolutely yes. I would say that this is not a book to have your kids read if you’re raising them to be religious, but I think it’s a worthy flip-side to the coin of beloved Christianity-heavy fiction like The Chronicles of Narnia — which I also really enjoyed as a kid. (As a side note, yes I am an atheist, and no that’s not because an impressionable, young version of me read these books — that decision didn’t happen until college and was the result of a lot of study and careful consideration.) More than anything, I think that His Dark Materials encourages the reader to live a good and enriching life, rather than slogging along in anticipation of what might come after.

These books span a lot of time, space and action. They’re about a lot of things, and different aspects of the story evoke different emotions from different people. Some people will say that it’s about vanquishing religion or about finding love in an unlikely place or overcoming your flaws to do what’s right. None of those answers are wrong. I think that for me, at its core, this trilogy is about following your instincts. It’s about friendship, trust, the purest love and the consequences of those absolutely essential things. It’s about living your life with kindness and curiosity, giving it meaning through your own actions. Those are the lessons that I carry with me from my readings of these novels. Honestly, I can’t wait to read them again.

So, if I feel like it I may continue documenting my journey through this list. So check for updates if you’re at all interested. I can make no promises as to the regularity of those updates, or if they’ll happen at all. All I can say is that something might happen, and it might be interesting!

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

14 Thursday Jan 2010

Posted by Mallory F in Reviews

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Tags

books, literature, Reviews, romance

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice — the original literary chick flick. I’m a little bit ashamed that, though I claim to be well-read, it’s only just now that I’ve gotten around to reading it. It seems like one of those classic novels that a girl has to read at least once in her life. I wasn’t going to post a review for it, because it’s been around so long and is referenced so much that it seems a little redundant. I do want to record my thoughts on it, though–and, really, what’s a review besides exactly that?

I will say, I was a little frustrated about having to go on Wikipedia and look up a synopsis. The book jacket on my copy said a lot about it being “a timeless classic,” and “beloved by generations,” but it didn’t tell me what the story was actually about. Maybe I’m lame for not already knowing, but all the prior knowledge I had of it was from lit majors mentally creaming themselves over Mr. Darcy. And I do like to have a rough idea of what is going to happen in a book before I read it.

Pretty much, you have the Bennets. They have five daughters who they are trying to marry off, and wouldn’t you know it, a rich and handsome bachelor (Mr. Bingley) happens to move in down the road from them. He quickly becomes enamoured of the oldest daughter, Jane. His friend, Mr. Darcy, is an even more handsome and rich bachelor, but everyone decides pretty fast that he’s a total prick. He’s so much of a prick that he falls in love with Elizabeth Bennet, but decides that her family is too podunk for him, and so bundles Mr. Bingley off to London with the reassurance that Jane isn’t that into him, anyway. When Mr. Darcy finally does come around and propose to Elizabeth, she naturally tells him to get fucked by the horse he rode in on. Unfortunately, it won’t take long for her to figure out that he’s actually a pretty rad dude, and turning him down may have been the biggest mistake of her life.

Also, there’s a clergyman named Mr. Collins who’s a total tool.

Forest can tell you that I have very little patience for books that I can’t basically speed-read. So, pretty much, anything pre-1900 or written by William S. Burroughs is out of the question for me. Or it’ll take me forever to get through it because I konk out ten pages in (sorry Jane Eyre, I love you, but you took me six months to read). But Pride and Prejudice was unexpectedly easy. I read the bulk of it in just two sittings, and even found myself adopting the language style a bit when I’d break to talk to someone.

I can see why this story has appealed to girls through multiple generations. Isn’t that just what we all want, to be pursued by the handsome bad boy, and for him to be so hurt by our rejection that he totally changes his act and becomes basically the perfect guy? Oh, and you think that men and women play games now? Nineteenth century courtship: because it’s inappropriate to openly discuss your feelings, you have to rely on subtle manners and body language to convey your interest or lack thereof. And even if you don’t like the guy, he’ll probably propose to you anyway. At least, that’s the way it plays out in Pride and Prejudice.

Would read again.

A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire

09 Saturday Jan 2010

Posted by Mallory F in Reviews

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books, fiction, Reviews, wicked

A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire

I was rather taken aback when I first saw that Gregory Maguire had written a third book in the Wicked series. Huge fan of the first book. It didn’t really need a sequel, but Son of a Witch was decently entertaining. Maguire could have stopped there. Or, if he had to continue, why write about the Cowardly Lion? What could that possibly add to the story? After a while, I did warm up to the idea of reading it, though I waited until it was released in paperback.

I was optimistic when I first started reading, despite my initial reservations. Maguire effectively revives his rich, cultured version of Oz, and in the beginning alludes to previous events with the tantalizing promise of new information to come. Perhaps A Lion Among Men would advance the plot of the first two books, tying up loose ends and closing out the series in a satisfying manner…

A Lion Among Men follows the life and travels of the Cowardly Lion, also known as Brrr, the Lion cub who was saved by Elphaba in Wicked. Brrr has been commissioned by the Ozian government to collect information about people connected with The Wicked Witch of the West, and to discover the whereabouts of her alleged son, Liir. His investigation leads him to a convent, and an ancient old woman named Yackle, who will only answer his questions in exchange for the story of Brrr’s life.

Turns out, my first impression of this novel was correct. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t go anywhere. You learn a lot about the life of the Lion, but he’s not a very interesting character. His life is nothing but disappointments, and the book depressed me more than anything else. The only reason I kept reading was because of the allusions to Liir, Candle, and their child, in hopes that they would come in to play later in the story, because clearly they were where the action was. Maguire let me down. Oh sure, you do find out a couple interesting bits of information that tie in to the two previous books—the whereabouts of Nor, and the identity of the individual who betrayed Elphaba and Fiyero—but it doesn’t make up for the time I wasted in reading the rest of the book. I could have been doing something useful, like prying my eyes out with a butter knife.

Perhaps I’m not being fair to Gregory Maguire. He is a great author, and even in this book, I cherished the opportunity to immerse myself in his Oz. It’s the lead character in all three novels, and it’s always a pleasure to visit. I wish, though, that he had stuck to the plot he was spinning with the first two books instead of attempting to get his readers interested in a character who—let’s face it—no one has ever been that interested in.

I hear that he’s in the process of writing a fourth book in the series, and that it will be about Glinda. That has some potential, I think, seeing as she was a pivotal character in the first two books. I’d certainly be more interested in reading about her than the Lion. However, as bad as I feel saying this, I’ll be relieved when Maguire stops beating his dead Ozian horse and brings this series to an end.

Paint it Black by Janet Fitch

06 Wednesday Jan 2010

Posted by Mallory F in Reviews

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books, fiction, Reviews

Paint It Black by Janet Fitch

Didn’t think I’d ever return, did you? Truth is, after moving and unpacking all of the old books I haven’t seen in years, I was struck with the urge to re-read a lot of them. So that’s where my literary energies have been focused for the past few months. My apologies, to whatever extent they are required—I don’t venture to suppose that anyone missed me too horribly.

At any rate, on to business! Today I am looking at Paint It Black by Janet Fitch. This book was not on my agenda; it was lent to me by a young friend of mine, and therefore I was expecting a young adult book. I found that, while this is probably still the type of thing I would have read at fifteen, I was pretty off the mark on the young adult assumption. This book was filled with the sex, drugs, and other such debauchery of LA’s 1980s punk scene. We’ll say I wouldn’t recommend it to my grandma. However, it wasn’t untastefully done. I’m actually a little torn about what kind of review to give this book, since I loved its poetic prose and was drawn in by my love/hate for the main character, but on the other hand didn’t feel that I really gained anything from reading it, once all was said and done.

Janet Fitch introduces us to Josie Tyrell, a girl about whom the reader doesn’t learn much in the first chapter, except that she’s a smoker, and her boyfriend has just offed himself. Devastated by the loss of Michael, Josie’s grief isn’t made any less by the blame and threats brought down on her by his rich and famous mother, Meredith Loewy. As the novel reveals more about Josie’s character (her troubled past, her dreams, and her lack of inhibitions) and her relationship with Michael, Josie moves tentatively into a closer relationship with Meredith in hopes of tasting the life that Michael once lived and to which he refused to expose her. Through this, Josie begins to discover that perhaps she never really knew Michael at all.

I appreciated this novel for its clever use of metaphor, and its poetic imagery. Fitch paints a vivid picture of 80’s Los Angeles, down to the dingy concert venues, the pompousness of its aspiring young citizens, and the sharp divide between the wealthy and the working class. Overtly graphic while managing not to be overly so, one gets a good feeling for the difficulty of trying to make it in a town of such big dreams with such huge obstacles.

The character of Josie herself really came alive for me. One thing that stuck out from the book, for me, was how I would forget that it was written in third person, just because everything was squarely from Josie’s viewpoint and it really got you inside her head. We’ll be clear about one thing: I didn’t find her to be a likable character. She was too much of a contradiction, wanting so badly to be a pure, true person, while doing so little to keep herself out of the drugs and glamour of LA life. However, I felt for her, and I think that that really speaks to Fitch’s ability to effectively develop a character.

Now, while I’ve already confessed to enjoying the metaphor and simile use in Paint It Black, I can still say that I thought it was a bit overdone. Not everything needs to be personified or compared to another thing or phenomenon. It drew out the novel a lot, so that where I was waiting for some actual advancement of the plot, all I received was twenty pages of flowery prose.

While we’re on the subject of plot…well, there wasn’t much of one. Boyfriend dies. Girl struggles to get over it. And that’s pretty much the whole book. By the end, there is no evident change in Josie besides her grief, and you never find out if she moves on, finds a new life, or improves the one she has. It begs the question: what is the purpose of telling this story if it ultimately leaves you in the same place you were at the end of the first chapter? I could have saved myself a lot of reading.

I think that Janet Fitch definitely has talent as a writer. I hear that her previous novel, White Oleander, was better, so I might give that a shot. Ultimately, I have to say that Paint It Black is like a merry-go-round: the ride was fun, but it didn’t take me anywhere. If you’re into that kind of thing, then I recommend it.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

31 Friday Jul 2009

Posted by Mallory F in Reviews

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Tags

books, depression, literature, Reviews

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I spent a while–probably a year or so–being quite intrigued by Sylvia Plath before I finally picked up this book. If you don’t know, Plath was a prominent poet in the 1950’s/60’s. She was married to Ted Hughes, and had a history of depression. (I’d probably be depressed, too, if I was married to Ted Hughes. Have you seen that guy?) In 1963 she published The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel. Three weeks later, she stuck her head in an oven. Like so many suffering artists, she gained more fame in death than she ever had while alive–in 1982, she won the Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems.

The Bell Jar is narrated by Esther Greenwood, a Smith College student who has won a summer internship at a women’s magazine in New York City. She quickly discovers that city life isn’t all she’d hoped for, and furthermore that she is far from living up to her own standards. Esther spirals into suicidal depression, and is institutionalized. With her loved ones keeping a close eye on her, Esther has to decide if life is worth living.

I had one of my professors tell me that knowledge of poetry will immensely improve one’s prose. Well, Sylvia Plath was a poet first and foremost, and it definitely shows in her writing. She uses a lot of metaphor, but manages to do it without being flowery or pretentious. The bell jar alluded to in the title, for instance, is used as a metaphor for the stagnance that she feels in her life, and the lives of those around her.

I also appreciated how well she was able to make the book flow. Throughout the book, Plath deviates often from present events to give background stories, and background stories of background stories. Yet these tangents aren’t distracting. They fit quite smoothly and naturally into the overall story.

I had mentioned in the first paragraph that this was a semi-autobiographical novel. Well, they say to write what you know, and Plath did so. Many events related in the book were inspired by true events in the author’s life. The internship in New York, her broken leg, her first suicide attempt, and the boyfriend with tuberculosis were all drawn from Sylvia Plath’s real life.

So the language and imagery were beautifully exectuted. I found this novel to be nearly flawless. Yet I wasn’t totally drawn in by the plot. I kept expecting more dramatic events that were never really delivered. I can’t say that I was disappointed, because I don’t know what I really expected. But even with all its good points, I don’t see it being particularly memorable plot-wise. An example of impeccable writing, yes. But I wasn’t left thinking about Esther Greenwood for days afterward, as has happened to me with characters in the novels I’ve loved the most.

I think that anyone who is really interested in writing should read this book. Let Sylvia Plath show you how it’s done.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

24 Friday Jul 2009

Posted by Mallory F in Reviews

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books, fantasy, Reviews

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

I didn’t mean to read this book. I picked it up at Goodwill for $0.50, having recognized it as perhaps the one book there that wasn’t a grocery store romance novel, or an outdated programming manual. It sat under my bed for a couple of months, until I found it during one of my rare cleaning excursions. So I pushed back three other novels I’d been planning to read, and started in on this. I have to say, it kept me interested. I was amazed at how fast I got through it. And now I suppose you’re waiting for me to say, “But…” Stay tuned, kittens.

Neverwhere starts out with a gentleman named Richard Mayhew, an average guy living in London with an average job, an overbearing fiance, and an overall unperturbed life. Until one day he stumbles over a young girl bleeding on the sidewalk. After helping her, he finds that not only is he all but invisible to the world he knows, but he and the girl (named Door) are also being pursued by the two most efficient and macabre mercenary murderers in London Below. As they search for the person at the root of this business, Richard will discover things about himself that the London-Above Richard never would have thought possible.

The good: Neverwhere kept me turning the pages. Gaiman has a very engaging writing style, so that even if you don’t particularly like the story, you still want to finish it.

A lot of the characters were immensely enjoyable. Croup and Vandemar, the villainous mercenaries, really made the book for me. Door was very interesting, too, in her own quiet, girlish way. Really, the backdrop of London Below was the most enjoyable character in the whole book. I really savored getting to know its quirks and surprises. It was like a dirty, mangy puppy that you know you should stay away from, but you can’t help inviting into your home.

The bad: Now, admittedly, I haven’t read a lot of Gaiman’s work. But it seems that, between this and American Gods, he tends to like using the same general template for a main character: A dull, uninteresting guy who finds himself thrown into a land of fantasy, and ends up fitting into it pretty well, actually. I didn’t like Shadow from American Gods, and I don’t like Richard Mayhew, either. Neither of them were particularly exciting or well-developed characters. It seems like Gaiman makes really great supporting characters, but totally flops with the main characters.

Other that that, Neverwhere was pretty predictable. It didn’t really throw me any curve balls. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn’t add points either. Overall, a nice light read, if you don’t mind a main character who you want to reach into the pages and slap.

In The Woods by Tana French

05 Sunday Jul 2009

Posted by Mallory F in Reviews

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books, murder, mystery, Reviews

In The Woods by Tana French

I picked this book up from the best seller table at Borders, because I wanted to take a chance and read something I’d never heard of. The plot sounded interesting. But I’ll be honest. I thought it was going to be your run-of-the-mill murder mystery in which the male and female partner detectives get a once-in-a-lifetime case, run through a bunch of bogus leads, fall in love along the way, find that the unlikely killer was right in front of their face the whole time, and become better people for the whole experience. But In The Woods surprised me. It wasn’t an altogether pleasant surprise, mind you, but a surprise nonetheless.

Detective Rob Ryan has a hidden past, which all comes rushing back to him when he and his partner, Cassie Maddox, are handed the case of a murdered child in the woods near the Knocknaree estate. It was in these same woods that Ryan and his two childhood friends went missing. Ryan was found, clinging to a tree and wearing blood-soaked sneakers, catatonic and unable to remember anything. The two other children were never found, and the unresolved case files sit collecting dust in the basement of the same building where Ryan now works. While searching for Katy Devlin’s killer, Ryan struggles to remember what happened to him and his friends that summer, and deals with the fact that finding out may derail his life and his career.

French’s style of writing was easy to get lost in. Her expertise in conveying emotion and atmosphere made In The Woods a fairly enjoyable read. An adult who has blotted a traumatic experience from his mind, only to recall it at the most opportune time, is great story fodder. But it’s not entirely realistic. French was clearly aware of this, and doesn’t easily give up the answers her readers are looking for. I applaud her for that.

There were instances during my reading of this book where I thought I knew exactly where it was going. I would peg a character and say, “Oh, that’s the killer! How predictable!” Then French would throw me a curve ball, and I’d be scratching my head, and turning the pages with bated breath to find out where she would go with it next.

Unfortunately, I can’t totally praise this book. I’ll come right out and say that I hated the narrator, Detective Ryan. He was an idiot and a hack. I really enjoy novels where, even if I don’t like the characters, I can at least sympathize with them. I couldn’t sympathize with Ryan at all. He came off as fairly smart sometimes, then made completely idiotic, unprofessional decisions. If he was a real person, I highly doubt he would have gotten any further in his career than mall security cop.

My one other problem with In The Woods was how characters sometimes seemed to act out-of-character for the sake of the plot. This was glaringly evident to me in the scene where Detective Maddox was trying to coerce a confession out of the killer. I said to myself, “Come on, this character isn’t that stupid.” I felt that perhaps French was getting tired of the roundabout investigation and just wanted to speed the ending up. Fair enough. It was a pretty long book.

All said and done, I felt that In The Woods left a lot of loose ends that I, as a reader, would like to have seen resolved. Though those nagging what-ifs are probably what will make the book memorable to me. Compared to what I was expecting, I’d say that my complaints about In The Woods are pretty minor, and that if you ever have a night to yourself, you should cozy up on your couch and pick up this book. It’s worth the read.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa

18 Thursday Jun 2009

Posted by Mallory F in Reviews

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books, fantasy, manga, Reviews

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa

I’ve never been a big fan of manga, which is probably why I’d never heard of this novel until quite recently. Apparently, it’s more or less the Japanese incarnation of Twilight. Not so much because of vampires and romance, but moreso because it’s a sub-par novel that has become an international craze. At least enough of a craze for its English translation to have a display near the front of Borders. When I mentioned it to my manga-nerd friends, they knew exactly what I was talking about. The novel has been adapted into a graphic novel, as well as an animated TV show. I figured it was about time for me to get my claws into it.

The plot of the novel caught my eye, and was the reason I picked it up in the first place. The narrator, Kyon, attends his first day of high school and meets Haruhi Suzumiya, a beautiful and sour young lady who soon becomes infamous for her strange behavior and self-proclaimed disinterest in “ordinary humans.” Together, Kyon and Haruhi start up the SOS Brigade, whose aim is to find espers, aliens, and time-travelers. More importantly, the SOS Brigade is supposed to keep Haruhi occupied so that she won’t destroy the world with the amazing power that she unknowingly wields. As Kyon gets dragged along for the ride, he discovers that his life is not as ordinary that he thinks, and probably never will be ordinary again.

My biggest beef with this novel is how much it tells and how little it shows. I don’t want Tanigawa to tell me that Haruhi is angry. I want to figure out that she’s angry by the way she slams her books on the desk. I don’t want Kyon to say that he’s hot, I want the imagery of his sweat-soaked school uniform. The lack of this type of description made the book very boring for me, and it took me over two weeks to finish its 224 pages, just because I couldn’t read more than a few without losing interest.

Beef number two was the overuse of similes. Tanigawa is apparently very fond of them, and they’re not particularly good similes. Sometimes there were several in the same paragraph (like college kids crammed into a phone booth?).

I was disappointed. The premise of the novel was very good. There were times when the novel surprised me with phenomenal insight just when I was about to throw it in the trash. Unfortunately, Tanigawa failed to expand on the more interesting aspects of the plot, and mostly stuck to describing the characters mundane day-to-day school lives in lifeless detail.

One more thing, it irked me how every main character in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya seemed to be uncommonly beautiful. I like to see flaws in my characters. It makes them more real. Mikuru Asahina could have had a crooked nose from a childhood accident. Or Haruhi could have had frizzy, untameable hair. But they didn’t. Tanigawa described them all as being close to perfection, and that annoyed me to no end.

Why are you so popular, Haruhi? Maybe I’ll just never understand what draws the masses. At any rate, this will probably be the last time for a while that I’ll try anything manga-related.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach

04 Thursday Jun 2009

Posted by Mallory F in Reviews

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books, nonfiction, Reviews, sex

Bonk by Mary Roach

Anyone close to me will know that I talk pretty openly about sex, not only because I enjoy participating, but also because it is a subject that I find immensely fascinating. I could totally see myself becoming a sex therapist one day. So when I heard that Mary Roach had written a book on sexual studies, I was dancing with anticipation. Of course, cheap bastard that I am, I had to wait until it came out in paperback before I actually bought it (though after leaving my first copy on the roof of my car and having to buy another one, it turns out I would have been better off buying it sooner in hardcover). At any rate, I was not disappointed. This book had me alternately giggling out loud and uttering thoughtful exclamations of, “Huh!” Roach really is the queen of investigative literature.

Bonk explores a wide spectrum of questions about sex and sexuality: Is masturbation good for you? Does female orgasm serve a purpose? Why can’t some men get it up? It takes the reader through centuries of sex research, dating from the ancient Greek belief that conception involved a mingling of male and female ejaculate, all the way up to today’s high-tech female version of the penis pump. I really enjoyed the footnotes, which, though usually off-topic, were extremely informative and hilarious.

This book also casts light on the difficulties involved in researching sex. How does one perform sexual studies without coming off as a pervert? Even today it’s a very difficult thing to do, and sex research labs often find themselves strapped for support and/or funding. It’s amazing that we’ve discovered as much as we have. Yet, even with all the remaining stigmas, there are still those brave souls who have taken it as their duty to make sex not only more understood, but more pleasurable as well. Great big huge thanks to all of them!

My only issue with this book was that the chapters seemed to ramble from one subject to the next. First Roach would be talking about one study, and then branch off into a totally different study, without any really obvious goal. It was difficult to keep straight which studies had come out successfully, and which were proven false by further research.

Altogether, I thoroughly enjoyed Bonk, and can’t wait for Roach’s next book. This time I’ll even buy it in hardcover.

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Tag Archives: books

Pushing 30 Reading Challenge — His Dark Materials

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire

Paint it Black by Janet Fitch

Recommended Reading

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

In The Woods by Tana French

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach