101 Books, Number 39

Favorite Books from Throughout My Life

39: Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, 2013, by Mary Roach (1959–)

I had to write a book review

About the latest book from Roach,*

And since my usual approach

Is reading all an author through,

I took the journey through her prose

And felt each time along the way

She had the freshest way to say

So many things that no one knows.

Well, some folks know them—that’s for sure—

And Roach goes looking for the ones

To interview—in fact, she runs

Toward them, takes their tour

Through knowledge most of us ignore—

Or choose to shun or to avoid—

We want no verbal Polaroid.

Discomfort—yes, deep in our core—

That’s what a Roach book will provide—

We learn about our gruesome guts,

And sex (no if’s, no and’s—but butts!).

We learn about what just has died.

And so discomfort is one way

To learn about the world we’re in—

And who we are, and where we’ve been—

And what we’ll be one future day.

*My review of Roach’s Gulp was in Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 7, 2013.