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Marjorie B. Garber

Sex and Real Estate: Why We Love Houses Paperback – September 18, 2001

by Marjorie Garber (Author)

9 ratings

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Cultural historian Marjorie Garber offers incisive and witty commentary on what men and women today really want in her enlightening study of what may be the most meaningful relationship any of us will ever have.

Real estate has become a form of “yuppie pornography.” Hopes of summer romance have given way to hopes of summer homes, and fantasies of Romeo have been replaced by fantasies of remodeling. Even real estate ads are flirtatious in their offers of bedrooms that are sensuous and sinks that are seductive. Thus the house you live in, like the partner you choose, can be everything from your beloved to your dream to a status symbol trophy. Marjorie Garber has fashioned a uniquely fascinating book that is as provocative as it is pleasurable, as erudite as it is entertaining, one sure to make readers consider more closely the rooms in which they live.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Anchor
Publication date

September 18, 2001
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0385720394
ISBN-13

978-0385720397
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[I]lluminating.... Garber upends, tilts and shakes the house of our cultural imagination.”–Newsday

“[F]iendishly clever....”–Boston Herald

“[I]nteresting and valid.”–The New York Times

From the Inside Flap

Cultural historian Marjorie Garber offers incisive and witty commentary on what men and women today really want in her enlightening study of what may be the most meaningful relationship any of us will ever have.

Real estate has become a form of yuppie pornography. Hopes of summer romance have given way to hopes of summer homes, and fantasies of Romeo have been replaced by fantasies of remodeling. Even real estate ads are flirtatious in their offers of bedrooms that are sensuous and sinks that are seductive. Thus the house you live in, like the partner you choose, can be everything from your beloved to your dream to a status symbol trophy. Marjorie Garber has fashioned a uniquely fascinating book that is as provocative as it is pleasurable, as erudite as it is entertaining, one sure to make readers consider more closely the rooms in which they live.

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Product details

Publisher : Anchor; Reprint edition (September 18, 2001)
Language : English
Paperback : 256 pages
ISBN-10 : 0385720394
ISBN-13 : 978-0385720397
Item Weight : 10.8 ounces
Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,492,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,104 in Sociology of Marriage & Family (Books)
- #12,896 in Evolution (Books)
- #16,726 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
9 ratings

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4 star 0% (0%)		0%
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Top reviews from the United States

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HeyJudy

A Gimmick by any other name...

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2000

Verified Purchase

This is a fascinating concept, and a marketable one as well, in light of America's current infatuation with the Edifice Complex. Considering the author's scholarly credentials, SEX AND REAL ESTATE should have been a absorbing book. "Should have" is the pivotal phrase here. No question that Garber's body of knowledge is vast--she hops all over the map with only the most tenuous connection to her thesis. Maybe she merely was showing off how much smarter she is than the average reader. While I have no doubt but that this fact is true, the book still quickly descends into boring psychobabble. Anyone seeking enlightenment is bound to be disappointed.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

Andrew

Great laughs

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2013

Verified Purchase

If you are looking for a funny book to read, this is it. The comparison between dating and house hunting is hilarious.

One person found this helpful

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Eileen G.

Presumptuous theories

Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2000

This series of connected essays purports to support a thesis, that for middleaged baby boomer (American, of a certain income level - let's face it) folks - the "We" of the title - real estate, specifically the house, is now in the place once reserved for sex. All the passion "we" brought to sex and love, now "we" bring to the desire for the right house. It's a glib and silly assertion, made all the more so by the annoying "We." Speak for yourself! I kept wanting to shriek.
Dr. Garber is an able writer, her eyes and ears are peeled for symbols and signs, and she can discuss her various themes wonderfully coherently, even elegantly. But she is not making sense when she attempts to pathologize (for example) communities' attempts to standardize exterior paint colors. For heaven's sakes, it's been done in Scandinavian and European countries (now democracies) for generations, with no measurable loss of the citizenry's psychic well-being.
She indulges in generalization which grate. Dr. Garber asserts that today's glossy,over-the-top shelter magazines such as Architectural Digest are today's pornography. She lists wording that anthropomorphizes real estate, as supporting evidence. This high-minded thought is evidently unknown to pornographers, who would appear to be doing a good business despite their continuing exclusion of real estate from their products. Again, one wishes that she could have personalized her assertions.
I think that a more honest subtitle for this book would have "Why I Love Houses." Were Dr. Garber to have simply written of her own passionate flights of fancy and considerable obsessions and attachments, rather than attempting to universalize them, I think she would have had a better treatise.

28 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jim Tirjan

A serious academic considers the passion for real estate

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2008

As an experienced real estate broker who has watched many souls fall in and out of love with their houses, myelf included, I congratulate Professor Garber for digging more deeply into our national passtime, our passion and now, our only pension fund. No other serious scholar has bothered. How can this be? Just as "Freakonomics" unpacked our secret, self-defeating relationships with money, Garber reveals our profound need for house-love in its many forms. Home buying and home making are deliciously Erotic fantasies in the most classical, general sense of Eros, of course, but I'd like to add, before you sign a title document, committing yourself to buying that darling cottage or marring that darling guy, take a look at this witty, scholarly book.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Philip Greenspun

I read it in my (too small and soon to be redone) bathtub

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2000

Don't excoriate Garber for the title of this book; authors typically don't choose the title or write jacket copy. It is true that the book has little to do with sex. It should probably be titled "Miscellaneous thoughts on American houses". If you're about to buy, remodel, or sell a house, this book will make a nice comforting read in the tub. It is sort of like watching Jerry Springer or Oprah and realizing that there are plenty of people whose lives are even more messed up than one's own. Skip the book if you're not about to engage in a huge real estate transaction of some sort.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

House and Home

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2002

For those interested in the difference between house and home, this IS the book. Not only is it an intense review of the comparison of house and home, but it tackles the topic of the contemporary obsession with the past and instant tradition. References a lot of literary texts as well as psycho-analytical studies and "Emily Post" style writings.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Frank R. Jackson

Dreadful

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2000

After quickly exhausting the cultural significance of Jello-O boxes in her previous book, SYMPTOMS OF CULTURE, Marjorie Garber has now produced little more than a book for realtors. The result is banal and rather stupid--anything but revelatory. But perhaps the reader below doesn't take the criticism far enough: this book has really nothing to say about the scandalous cost of real estate in most major U.S. cities, the large number of people who are homeless, and the millions of folks who are gouged every month by unscrupulous landlords (how sexual is that, Professor Garber?). Until recently, cultural critics expressed nominal interest in improving our society. Nowadays, concerned only about their fat publishing advances, all they seem able to do is exhibit nauseating complicity with society's ugliest elements.

22 people found this helpful

Helpful

Traci Smith

Only for the Professional!

Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2000

Okay, I read all the other views, but I sell Real Estate, and lots of it - I can tell you that she nails the emotions many people attach to their homes. If you make your living selling homes you will find this book helpful, especially if you've had a run of nut case buyers!

10 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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Timothy

Das einzige was sexy ist ist der Titel

Reviewed in Germany on February 18, 2014

Verified Purchase

Ansonsten sind die Seiten gefüllt von blabla. Why we love houses kommt auf jeden Fall nicht vor. Für den ausgefallen Titel gibt es einen Stern. Ansonsten Schrott.

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