I’ve just posted my latest review for The Book Book; it covers non-fiction author Mary Roach’s Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.
This was Roach’s second book. The first, Stiff, was about what happens to the human body after death. You can see that she’s attracted to odd, even icky topics; and you may guess from the title, too, that she uses humor to distance the reader from the ick. She’s one of my favorite non-fiction writers, certainly among the most enjoyable.
As I say in the review, my only real reservation about her work has to do with that sense of humor. Sometimes she drops a punchline into the text just a little too insistently, and it falls flat.
Compare this approach to, say, Bill Bryson’s. He too loves to make people laugh, and he too never shies away from the humor in a situation. But the jokes are good ones, not limp asides inserted for the sake of comic timing.
But I don’t want to hammer at that point too hard; I don’t want you to think I don’t enjoy Roach’s writing. Whatever she comes up with, I expect to be among those happily reading it.
DarcKnyt says
Hm. I’d like to check this out. Is it a new book, JES, or one I might find at a library which isn’t a metropolitan powerhouse?
John says
Came out in 2005, Darc — I’d say it should be available, although (depending on the severity of the not-a-powerhouse status :)) you might have to go with an inter-library loan.
Hmm… I just checked online, at what I think is your local library. (Lord love the Web.) It says they’ve got one copy of each of Mary Roach’s books so far, in the Adult Non-fiction section.
Nance says
I’m buying that one. I read yesterday that something like 65% (or was it 85%!) of humans believe in ghosts. I could use a little humor on that subject, even if the timing is iffy.
I really like to listen to Bryson read his own work; he’s one of those rare authors who sounds like he writes and I love his writing. He’s still got a little bit of British accent and a lot of Brit phrasing in his speech, which makes it even better to my ears. I think I’ve listened to everything he’s written on my antique iPod.
John says
Nance: I’ve never heard Bryson read but it’s easy to imagine his voice sounding like that. (I think he grew up in the US, though; in the Thunderbolt Kid memoir he talks about his father being a baseball writer for a Midwest newspaper.) Another one of my non-fiction favorites!
Somewhere downstairs I’ve got his History of Everything in a to-be-read pile. Very interested to see how he’ll cover that; he seems like someone born to write travelogues.
(“Iffy timing”: ha!)
cynth says
I gotta say I loved “Stiff” and loaned it to all and sundry (especially nephews with strange senses of humor). But Spook, not so much. I think she did indeed try to hard for the laugh. I was surprised to see that she is one of your favorites. Mine, too along with Bryson. Hmmm, must run in the family??
John says
Cynth: Actually, you may have been the one who turned me on to Stiff in the first place!
marta says
I enjoy most of Bryson’s work. Spook sounds like something I want to read! Another book to the list.
John says
marta: Not enough minutes (let alone hours) in the day to read everything on the list, are there? Bryson’s pretty great though… I’d love to have a body of work like his, covering some of the same but many different topics.
They do say it’s “easier” to get non-fiction published than fiction. I’d just hate to undo all my momentum in the latter area, ha.