AlertNet's Ruth Gidley reviews “Emergency Sex (and Other Desperate Measures): True stories from a war zone”, by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson. The book is published in the United States by Miramax Books and in Britain by Ebury Press.

Not everybody knows that aid workers drink too much, sleep around and get angry with their bosses.

“Emergency Sex” tells the true story of three young U.N. aid workers in violent hotspots in the ‘90s, who spend their evenings in drinking dens where undercurrents of sexual desire are fed by days of intimate contact with death.

The publishers say the United Nations wanted to ban the book for its candid portrayal of the rowdy side of aid workers’ lives and its angry descriptions of U.N. cock-ups.

Miramax obviously think there’s mileage in the story, and is apparently planning a TV drama series based on the book.

Like most good war stories, the book revolves around wildly different characters thrown together on a turbulent journey that leaves them both broken and infinitely enriched.

Heidi is an attractive young woman escaping her home country and a past marriage.

When her job with rough sleepers in New York doesn’t cover the bills, the U.N. seems like a route to quick cash, but leads her towards intense bonds with people from alien social worlds and different countries.

Her serial sexual conquests confirm she is alive in the midst of chaos and give her a way to exert her womanhood after years of hiding it.

As Heidi puts it: “I think I can make love with a few sexy young soldiers and a Somali or two, and not forget that children can’t go to school in this country.”

Ken is an idealistic new lawyer who has grown up with the ghosts of the Holocaust and is filled with desire to stop war crimes and spread American democracy.

Andrew, a doctor, is fueled by faith and conviction, both of which are slowly worn away as he shifts from treating patients to wading through mass graves.

The three authors start their friendship knocking back daiquiri cocktails at rooftop parties in post-war Cambodia, but their work soon takes them on missions that stretch their nerves and principles to breaking point.

The U.N.’s ideals and purpose were challenged as never before by its failures in the tangled, ugly conflicts of Bosnia, Haiti, Rwanda and Somalia, and our three lead characters have a front-row view.

There is a distasteful edge of arrogance in these aid workers’ privileged relationship to the horrors they dip in and out of, and yet they are highly sympathetic because we know that they are living through some of the worst times in recent history, and learning as they go along.

They crave the hardcore wartime assignments, even though it means dropping everything – including romance -- if they’re called up to a mission.

Andrew, Heidi and Ken know how hard it is for outsiders to understand the world they inhabit – one of dead colleagues and impossible decisions.

And they know that if any of them die, one of the others will make the phone call to their family.

Their immersion in the smell and feel of death guides their anger at the international community’s incompetence and cynicism, but it also heightens their appreciation of the value of life.

These three young people are firsthand eyewitnesses to the U.N.’s futility in stopping the worst actions of men against each other.

They watch farcical elections, survive botched security plans and suffer unbearable personal losses, and yet we still get the impression they would not have missed it for the world.