15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shrinking things down to size..., May 28, 2007
As a psychotherapist, I must say that this book shares a clear perspective on cheating which is not only useful for professional therapists dealing with issues of infidelity, it is at once relevant and useful for my clients as well. Taking the approach from a non-religious and non-moral majority stance allows this painful yet fascinating topic to be unpacked in a way that gives us a sense that what is happening in these relationships, OUR relationships, is a quiet storm crying out for love and the absence of pain. We must grow together in relationships with communication as our navigational system, rather than rely on satisfying our emotional holes with sexual silly putty. This book should be on every therapists shelf and anyone in a relationship worth saving.
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unique & humorous perspective on cultural differences, June 30, 2007
I decided to buy a copy of "Lust in Translation" by Pamela Druckerman because way back when (mid 1980s), Pamela and I were US House of Representatives pages together. Other than an occasional email contact, I had not directly heard much from Pamela. I had read several of her Wall Street Journal articles over the years.
As someone who thoroughly enjoys reading about other cultures and people, this book fit my occasional non-fiction reading habits. I wasn't looking for anything "heavy" - as in, full of facts, figures, dates, or history. And, I certainly wanted to stay away from anything that seemed academic or dry.
It's fair to say that if you're looking for relatively creative non-fiction spanning several cultures that are not frequently bunched together or compared (including Hasidic Jews, French, and Chinese), you'll find it hard to put down this book.
In my opinion, Druckerman's writing style mirrors what you would expect from a former Wall Street Journal reporter. She mixes interviews, statistics, and commentary in a nearly seamless manner. In a sense, it's a collection of long articles - each relating to a different culture's practices and perspectives relating to infidelity.
There are many funny tidbits (using words you usually don't see in serious non-fiction) about how each culture covered refers to affairs in their language - often using slang terms. I laughed out loud a few times.
To me, the best contribution of the book is comparing the stereotypes regarding infidelity for each culture to how it is currently viewed within the culture. I was left surprised that anyone would share some of the details described in the book - even on an anonymous basis.
My overall conclusion is that this book falls into the category of "Truth is stranger than fiction." The way Druckerman handles this topic, it's possibly more funny than fiction, too.
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32 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better zine piece than a book, April 23, 2007
This is an interesting topic---how infidelity is looked at around the world. But, this book is more of a paded magazine piece than anything else. There are some stats and then the author's travelogue of spending a few days in one country and a few days in another.Here is the Big Idea: people in poor countries cheat a lot, those in wealthy ones(including France), very little;we in the USA get worked up over cheating a lot, while our wealthy sisters(including France)see lies as part of life; in Russia, there is a ton of cheating going on because there are lots of men, few women, with men exploiting the difference. The wrap up chapter and the one on Russia are very good, as is the stuff on poverty/wealth and cheating. But,the book could have stopped there and been twice as good.
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