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A review by matthewcpeck
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
5.0
I never thought I'd bestow a 5-star rating on book that had so many colons. And I DON'T MEAN DOTS.
This might be my favorite Mary Roach work yet, because this time she brings her inimitable style to a subject that applies to everybody (more so than sex). The chapters of the book are neatly structured - starting with taste, smell, saliva and chewing, moving onto digestion, and ending with you-know-what. Those final chapters are unforgettable, and had me squirming all over the surface of my commuter-train seat.
Of course, Roach's writing had me laughing uncontrollably, and she inserts the most wondrous footnotes this side of David Foster Wallace. But she also has a remarkable persuasiveness. Her book 'Stiff' is responsible for my decision to donate my remains to science, and 'Gulp' may just have me (and you) considering fecal implants to be the future of medicine.
The book's flaw is in its being too short. Dear Ms. Roach or Ms. Roach's publisher: please put out a compilation of her magazine pieces, already.
This might be my favorite Mary Roach work yet, because this time she brings her inimitable style to a subject that applies to everybody (more so than sex). The chapters of the book are neatly structured - starting with taste, smell, saliva and chewing, moving onto digestion, and ending with you-know-what. Those final chapters are unforgettable, and had me squirming all over the surface of my commuter-train seat.
Of course, Roach's writing had me laughing uncontrollably, and she inserts the most wondrous footnotes this side of David Foster Wallace. But she also has a remarkable persuasiveness. Her book 'Stiff' is responsible for my decision to donate my remains to science, and 'Gulp' may just have me (and you) considering fecal implants to be the future of medicine.
The book's flaw is in its being too short. Dear Ms. Roach or Ms. Roach's publisher: please put out a compilation of her magazine pieces, already.