THE EROTIC LIFE OF THE AMERICAN WIFE

The demythologized world of Venus without Eros, we know it well -- not so much explored as identified by Mrs. Gittelson via city-to-suburb-to-small town homes although the field work is casual (she interviewed ""more than 600 people, perhaps nearly a thousand"") and the tone is easy (she has written, for instance, for the New York Times Magazine). ""Mrs. Goodwife"" is no more; our new Ms. devalues both marriage and men as she adopts a male style along with a new prefix and demands sexual liberty as another civil right; women have become avid, mobile but also relatively disenchanted: in fact you'll find very few happy ones whether swingers or communards, lesbians or feminists, blacks or career wives. At the end Mrs. Gittelson appends a few more exemplary ""green marriages"" and throughout she obviously laments the soullessness of self-gratification while the highway is being littered with husbands and children. Unexploitative and accessible.