Amazon.com Review
According to radio psychologist and provocateur Laura Schlessinger, most unhappy marriages are alike—-and can be changed in just minutes a day. In this companion to Dr Laura's best-selling The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, women are the source of the problem and have the power of the solution. Wives, brainwashed by "feminism" and politically correct psychotherapy, have become dismissive of their husbands, denying them tenderness, pillow talk, admiration, and dinner on the table, says Schlessinger. Her prescription is deceptively simple. A wife must stop defining her power in terms of possessions, position, and independence. Instead, she should remember that "men are simpler in their emotional needs" (they are demoralized by not feeling cared for) and exercise her "awesome power to change her man and her marriage." The payoff? A husband who will "die for us"--and take out the garbage without being asked. Schlessinger coaxes readers in attitude adjustment through an assessment of their marriage and dozens of specific suggestions about compliments, conversation, counting blessings and lacy underwear. She is at her best in asking readers to explore anti-male bias in advertising and Internet jokes. Her tart commentary is interspersed with journal exercises, testimonial transcripts from her radio show, and listener letters. The book's central ideas (devotion robust listening, sensuality) are too often eclipsed by its gender typecasting of both partners and frequent frying of the feminist idea of mutuality in marriage. Both men and women will surely bristle at the book's anachronistic assumptions: for example, a silk teddy manipulates men and nothing spells loving like something from the oven. Dr. Laura's self-promotion and the defense and repetition of her earlier ideas also undermine her message. Still, it must be noted that many of her listeners and readers find Schlessinger's ten-minute marriage manager to be hopeful and helpful. --Barbara Mackoff
From Publishers Weekly
This sister volume to the bestselling The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands argues that by simply using "the niceness of the feminine touch," women "have almost magical powers" to singlehandedly improve their marital relationships. The secret is in implementing the "As"—attention, approval, appreciation and affection—that Dr. Laura outlined in her earlier book, and she relies on reader testimonials and radio show transcripts to show specifically how change worked for her devoted fans. Women "dominate with respect to power in man-woman relationships," she says. Not all readers will agree with her conservative and controversial premise that "most women have been blinded to caring about what their men think, feel, and want," and many may find her message cloaked in feminist-bashing bombast (feminists have "created wussy Frankensteins out of men"). Dr. Laura blames feminism—and denigrates women who have chosen careers—for devaluing "what is truly meaningful (sacrifice, commitment, obligation, morality, loyalty) for immediate gratification and material gain, a bizarre notion of equality of the sexes, and power." She never discusses what men can do to improve a marriage; instead she reiterates why it's the woman's responsibility to change first—"because we have more power to transform our men than they have to transform us." Devoted fans may flock to this book. Some men may also want to read this is slickly written self-help title—and want their wives to read it as well.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
