Mary Roach (Stiff, Gulp, Packing for Mars) investigates the seedy underbelly of military operations with her trademark tongue-in-cheek aplomb. She provides an eye-opening exposé of government research projects that (at times) appears almost fantastical.
Her research begins at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, where scientists and fashionistas are hard at work creating new ways for soldiers to stay dry, sated and bulletproof in the heat of battle. At the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Roach witnesses how officers conduct personnel vulnerability tests, or "the art and science of keeping people safe in a vehicle that other people are trying to blow up," using crash test dummies (donated "stiffs") to assess the vulnerabilities of armored vehicles. Grunt then travels inward, to the gross-out elements of human bodily parts and functions, as she delves into male urogenital reconstruction and penile transplants for injured veterans in one chapter, and diarrheal threats to national security in "Leaky Seals." Fittingly, Roach goes on to observe government efforts to create a stink bomb so noxious as to discourage enemy combatants, and any marine predators, from attacking downed pilots.
While Roach imbues her storytelling with a quick wit, she is also swift to point out the more lasting consequences of war: "Despite or possibly because of their low profile, the less visible injuries of war can be the hardest kind to have." Nevertheless, Grunt is certain to arouse a more than passing interest in the tax dollars at work on these secret government research projects. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant