Sons, Lovers, and Fathers: Understanding Male Sexuality [Hardcover]

Didier Dumas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0765700336 | ISBN-13: 978-0765700339

This work is about male sexuality. Not another book about technique or playboy fantasies, but about what it feels like to be a man, a son, a lover, a father. Written in accessible, non-technical language, this book will encourage men to talk about their sexuality in an entirely new way. It is a book for men of the "baby boomer" generation who, though liberated in many ways, are still sexually inarticulate and unable to express their deepest feelings. It is a book for young men, constantly overwhelmed by porno-erotic imagery, who don't know what to make of their feelings and how to place themselves in a world of plastic supermodels and pumped up superstars. And it is a book for women, baffled by the men in their lives and their inability to speak about or even know what they feel. This book should get people talking: man to man, father to son, and lovers to each other.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc. (June 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765700336
• ISBN-13: 978-0765700339
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,640,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Male sexuality: decent and dignity restored, May 23, 2000

By 

William Kuentzel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sons, Lovers, and Fathers: Understanding Male Sexuality (Hardcover)

Dumas has written a masterful accounting-- introduction, explanation--of male sexuality, and he has done so creatively with understanding, respect, compassion and moments of sheer brilliance. Here is but one creative example: The head of the penis is coverede with muscosal tissue. (Mucosa covers internal surfaces and is naturally moist, the glans is dry only for circumcised men.) Has anyone else had the genius to recognize the penis is an antomical device that makes possible the bringing together of two internal surfaces, the comingling of the insides of two people? This simple observation, based soley on anatomic fact, opens up sex to be a mutually exposing, mutually vulnerable, mutually generous act. The book is full of gems like this.

The book is highly readable and accessible--so much so the translators' early copies kept disappearing, stolen by people who wanted the book. Dumas is French.

Of course, not everyone will agree with all of his observations and opinions. There are always people itching for a fight, and those with agendas of their own (sexist, political or otherwise) will not be happy--sadly, they seldom are.

Dignity, fun, respect, play--the book is a rare, deeply understanding work, and it brings achingly, howlingly absent elucidation to what is far too often vastly unappreciated and misunderstood: male sexuality.