Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I geisha just had to be there., August 26, 2007
Kudos to Mrs. Conant for pursuing her love of writing and making this book a hit. Personally, I don't find most of her suggestions for building the ego of a man to be particularly controversial and I agree with her on a lot of points. I can honestly say I've practiced most of this philosophy before she gave a name to it and the results have been easy and positive.
However, there are a couple of facts that the potential buyer should know about. The first being the author does not have much experience with successful love affairs, by her own admission. She dated a few jerks and finally married, at the age of 36, a man more than 20 years older than she. At the time of this book's publication, he is 63. She admits he "has a very relaxed attitude toward work and money; he is more of a thinker than a doer" (page 120). Now, one of the author's promises is that if you follow her advice, you can be married in 12 to 18 months. I'm sure she and her husband are in love and it's not my business to pry into her personal life, but the question is: is the potential buyer impressed by her choices enough to subscribe to her advice in order to get similar results?
Another interesting point was that the fact that they live in a one bedroom apartment with lots of exercise equipment all over the place. Exercise is important to them. Great. No problem. Except the premise of her book is to ALWAYS be feminine and fresh as a flower for your man. My question is, can a geisha sweat like a banshee while doing crunches on the carpet in front of her husband and still keep her feminine mystique? Why doesn't she join a gym to preserve the allure she is so passionate about? This is a quibble, I know. But still.
Finally, the one idea she put forth that I do find unique, to say the least, was to make an actual shrine to your lover's nether regions. Yep. Display an explicit photo of his member. Surround the photo with candles, small offerings and incense. Perhaps add a poem written about it. Okay. I had to ask my husband, who is no shrinking violet in the alpha male department, what he thought of this. He cringed and said it would be embarrassing. We both hope she was joking around. But we're not sure.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Applying Eastern traditions to Western relationships, February 1, 2007
Conant writes to a specific audience: women who are eager to exit the single life and/or women who want to sustain steamy passion in an ongoing relationship. She all but guarantees that husband-hunters will bag their quarry within eighteen months, following her plan. That core of the plan is simple: dedicate oneself and one's every waking moment to the goal of finding (and keeping) the ideal partner.
Whatever else men may be, they are physical. As a result, Conant spends the first half of the book on developing a woman's physical allure. Half of that is directed inwardly, toward raising the reader's sense of her own eroticism. The other half is directed outwardly, toward helping the reader project her allure and toward the man's sense of his own physical potency. As a male reader, I have to agree with big parts of Conant's advice: enhancing the physical affection in a relationship enhances the relationship as a whole.
The second half of the book addresses the search for a close and satisying relationship. Much of this discussion focuses on the reader's knowledge of herself - if she doesn't know what she wants in a relationship, how will she know when she's found it? Conant is quite right in pointing out that the search never really ends. Simply existing in a long-term pairing or marriage isn't enough. It takes effort to hold onto its intensity and to explore new possibilities within that monogamous range. Although Conant is specific in much of her advice, the general tone is what matters: always encouraging, and always confident that the effort will be rewarded.
The author points out early and often that her approach isn't for everyone. It runs directly against the grain of much feminist thinking. Some of her advice seems radical by any standard, such as "Get[ting] a less demanding job" to free up more time for the husband hunt. Other advice, the kind that focuses the reader on how others see her, carries its own risks, and the author says little about the idea that a woman's eagerness to please her man should be reciprocated. Conant has chosen not to address the man's role in the mutual attraction, however, and that is her right as an author. Instead, she addresses the woman's part in creating and sustaining attraction, showing how a geisha's professional skills can work in any relationship. Decide whether that's what you want - if so, there's a lot to enjoy in this book.
//wiredweird, reviewing a complimentary copy
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Eye Opener!, June 25, 2007
I'm 24 and am currently searching for my Good Man. I was wandering through the book store after getting rejected by a Wrong Man that I had been chasing for months. I felt so humiliated and and depressed and kept wondering what was wrong with me. I stumbled across "Sex Secrets of an American Geisha" I grabbed it and sat down on a cushy couch with it and must have been there 2 hours before I heard the store was closing. I then decided I HAD to have this book and ran home to keep reading. Upon reading further, I realized my approach was all wrong. Like Py, I had almost always been the one doing the chasing, and the men I were chasing were Wrong Men and Bad Men. I kept wondering why "fate" was repeating itself and why I kept making up excuses to not cut ties with these men. Py's book was a real eye opener and I see that if I had not read it, I'd still be chasing after all the Wrong Men and Bad Men and I'd never be happy. I have learned not only to not be with a man who disrespects me, I learned too that I don't have to be gaurded in a relationship with a Good Man because he's good!. I have realized I don't have to be aggressive to get by as a single girl in this world and a Good Man will love me for who I am and I will never have to feel like it's him vs me in a relationship ever again. Thank you Py for showing us younger sisters that we can have much more out of life and believe again that we can find a Good Man because they do exist! And thank you for helping us understand how to please ourselves in the process :)
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