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How to Commit Monogamy
(1997)A Lighthearted Look at Long-Term Love
A non fiction book by Elaine Viets
Publisher's Weekly
Regular sex, no guilt, no AIDSwhat better arguments could you make for monogamy? Yet by stretching her case to book length, Viets, a syndicated columnist who has been married to the same guy for 25 years, is probably preaching to the converted. Converts or not, readers are in for a healthy share of humor here as well as informative statistics. Citing in particular a 1994 survey by the University of Chicago, Viets reveals that most Americans are monogamous so long as their marriages are intact, cohabitants have more satisfying sex than the unattached and adultery isn't much fun for anyone. Viets advises women that, according to her data, the college-educated make more adventurous lovers and have a better time in bed than your unlettered brutes. In other words, Lawrence's Lady Chat got it backward when she strayed from the marriage bed to Mellors the gatekeeper. But for some mildly irritating gender stereotyping"Most men can't remember special occasions; most women never forget them"the author goes a long way toward clearing monogamy's bad name.
Library Journal
Syndicated columnist Viets has attempted to write on love, sex, and marriage in a comic, lighthearted tone. Unfortunately, what results is entertaining but hardly informative. Much of the text reads like a stand-up comic's barrage of one-liners, and the punch lines aren't even that funny. In the course of the book, Viets criticizes her parents' generation, wedding ceremonies, small-town communities, and Catholicismand just about everything else, including herself. Alas, she usually sounds like a whining naysayer. She assumes a specific type of reader: women baby boomers who thought themselves liberated in their youth and who are now almost embarrassed by their present monogamy. Recommended mainly for readers who fit this description.Elizabeth Caulfield Felt, Washington State University, Pullman
Regular sex, no guilt, no AIDSwhat better arguments could you make for monogamy? Yet by stretching her case to book length, Viets, a syndicated columnist who has been married to the same guy for 25 years, is probably preaching to the converted. Converts or not, readers are in for a healthy share of humor here as well as informative statistics. Citing in particular a 1994 survey by the University of Chicago, Viets reveals that most Americans are monogamous so long as their marriages are intact, cohabitants have more satisfying sex than the unattached and adultery isn't much fun for anyone. Viets advises women that, according to her data, the college-educated make more adventurous lovers and have a better time in bed than your unlettered brutes. In other words, Lawrence's Lady Chat got it backward when she strayed from the marriage bed to Mellors the gatekeeper. But for some mildly irritating gender stereotyping"Most men can't remember special occasions; most women never forget them"the author goes a long way toward clearing monogamy's bad name.
Library Journal
Syndicated columnist Viets has attempted to write on love, sex, and marriage in a comic, lighthearted tone. Unfortunately, what results is entertaining but hardly informative. Much of the text reads like a stand-up comic's barrage of one-liners, and the punch lines aren't even that funny. In the course of the book, Viets criticizes her parents' generation, wedding ceremonies, small-town communities, and Catholicismand just about everything else, including herself. Alas, she usually sounds like a whining naysayer. She assumes a specific type of reader: women baby boomers who thought themselves liberated in their youth and who are now almost embarrassed by their present monogamy. Recommended mainly for readers who fit this description.Elizabeth Caulfield Felt, Washington State University, Pullman
Used availability for Elaine Viets's How to Commit Monogamy