LIKE, LOVE, LUST: A View of Sex and Sexuality

by John Langone ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 27, 1980

Without the mechanics or the hard facts (on abortion, birth control, VD, etc.), which as Langone notes are already adequately covered, what's left is bound to be subjective and somewhat amorphous. As might be expected, Langone avoids the major offenses--gushing, hip slang, teens' own rambling first-person accounts or mindless pronouncements, or, finally, conservative don'ts hidden beneath a stance of objectivity. What he does is discuss various topics, quite rationally though not always pointedly. There are chapters on homosexuals (they vary, like the rest of us), jealousy (less likely if you like and respect yourself), pornography (bad if it debases women), marriage (open or closed depends on the parties), and sex and morality. (""Sex can be moral outside of marriage, but only if it is loyal, responsible, unselfish, honest and truly joyous."" Langone doesn't say whether he also holds the married to such a rigorous ideal.) Inevitably there are pronouncements that will strike some as off (a mother's killing her 18-year-old daughter to keep her from going off to a pimp is given as an example of the unsavory nature of prostitution), and there are others that hit home. (It's about time we heard a reservation against ""letting it all hang out"": honesty in a relationship, says Langone, should be tempered with charity.) With quotes from Lecomte du Nouy on one page and Dale Carnegie on the next, it's a sort of free-ranging rap for kids without any urgent questions or great expectations.

Pub Date: March 27, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION