Merrill Markoe's Guide to Love [Paperback]

Merrill Markoe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 1998

When Merril Markoe looked back on her decidedly checkered romantic past, she decided, in the name of women everywhere, to set out on a quest for the holy grail of true love. The result is Merrill Markoe's Guide to Love, which goes boldly where no book has ever dared -- from a hands-on oral-sex class to a consultation with LaToya Jackson's psychic. Markoe discloses the "Secrets of Seduction" -- who knew that oven mitts can make intercourse more fun? -- and visits a "love channeler" who delivers advice from his alter-ego Shontee, who lives 250,000 years in the future. Having scaled a mountain of Hallmark poetry and "breast enhancers," Markoe has proven herself a guerrilla in the struggle for love. Coming in comic aid to women in distress everywhere, Merrill Markoe's Guide to Love is a brazen and brilliantly funny take on love and sex in the self-help world of the nineties.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Merrill Markoe did the world a favor when she wrote her Guide to Love, providing insight on important issues such as "How to Turn a Man Into Putty in Your Hands" and under what conditions one wears horse hairs clipped to one's pubic curls. Covering pheromones to flirting, and with the inside dirt on a men's seduction course and a women's seminar on blow-jobs, Markoe exposes, as it were, the market that's sprung up to help the lovelorn. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Partly a spoof on guides to romantic relationships, Markoe's look at love and sex in the 1990s is often tiresome, sometimes wickedly funny and occasionally hilarious. Roughly one-third of the 21 selections appeared in New Woman. Writing with a keen sense of the ridiculous honed by her own checkered love life, Markoe, a columnist for Buzz and New Woman, offers witty takes on marriage, flirtation and screwed-up relationships. She exposes the inanity of much self-help advice as she reports on seminars and weekend retreats she's attended in the Los Angeles area on the art of seduction, the fine points of oral sex, finding one's soul mate and how to appeal to the opposite sex. She distills tongue-in-cheek lessons from Hollywood romantic movies and brings sharp feminist humor to her discussion of dating rituals and men's fixation with scoring and with body parts. But much of her counsel reads like a stand-up comic's scattershot monologue.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (January 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871137062
• ISBN-13: 978-0871137067
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,167,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Merrill Markoe graduated from UC Berkeley with a masters degree in art, then went on to use her degree in the most pragmatic way possible by becoming a writer of comedy for assorted venues, including television, movies and magazines,(when there still were magazines.) Along the way she won five Emmys for Late Night with David Letterman and a Writer's Guild Award for HBO's Not Necessarily the News.These days she is STILL writing books and making short films. To learn more than you probably need to know about her, visit Merrillmarkoe.com. And when I say "her", I mean "me." As far as I can tell, I'm the only one writing this.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A hilarious look at the eternal search for love, February 19, 2002

By 

D. Movahedpour "doeadear" (CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Merrill Markoe's Guide to Love (Paperback)

The always-witty Merrill Markoe tells it like it is in her search through the quagmire of love in the modern world. She attends a seminar on giving the ultimate fellatio; she sees a psychic, joins a dating club...all in search of the answers..., but getting to that conclusion is one of the wittiest, most sarcastic journeys you will ever take.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funniest true book on love in the known universe, July 26, 2004

By 

Merrill Markoe (Tacoma ,Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merrill Markoe's Guide to Love (Paperback)

I always wondered what was going on in all those classes that claim teach love technique and ways to attract the opposite sex. In this book Merrill Markoe attends a bunch of them and draws a hilarious portrait of the people who attend, as well as the so called lesson plans. Merrill Markoe makes me laugh. SHe has such a great eye for detail and along the way there are some theoretically useful tips. Read this book and you don't have to buy the next ten new books on this subject.

4.0 out of 5 stars Love it!, May 11, 2011

By 

Swartzie - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Merrill Markoe's Guide to Love (Paperback)

I love Merrill Markoe and her zany relatable characters! I recommend reading "Walking in Circles Before Lying Down" before reading this book. It's shorter and will give you a good taste of what to expect with her characters in other books. This one is a really good comedic view. I love it!