EVE'S NEW RIB: 20 Faces of Sex, Marriage, and Family

by Robert T. Francoeur ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 10, 1972

Father Francoeur who is also a professor of embryology at Fairleigh Dickinson and the author of a number of books begins with a few of the laboratory procedures which figured in his Utopian Motherhood (1970) and also Robert Rorvik's Brave New Baby (1971). This is only as a vista of some of the thornier controversies they may promote before he settles down to the ones we have at hand which here are called ""options"" -- namely those which occur in open sex situations, before, during or after marriage, when we divorce sex from earlier moralistic and theological positions (and its procreative function). Francoeur's book uses material from all the media -- books, magazines, films, even commercials -- and you'll find Robert Rimmer (he of the Harrad experiment) and the Roys (Honest Sex) as a basis for a great deal of the discussion. Sometimes Francoeur is overly approving of material which has been presented; for example, he accepts as fact, where others did not, the conclusions Bettelheim reached in his seven-week survey, The Children of the Dream. All kinds of people rub shoulders -- Vance Packard and Margaret Mead, Rollo May and the ubiquitous ""liberal"" Albert Ellis. But Francoeur, after presenting all these findings of ""present shock,"" is not cautious in stating his own conviction -- namely that the ""flexible couple, with either comarital relations or a revolving third party will provide the most common adaptation in American family life in the decades ahead"" (these are his italics). Group sex he dismisses but in his 20-faced prognosis, serial monogamy, trial or two-step marriages, polygamy for senior citizens (well, why exclude them anyway), reversal of the momma-and-poppa roles, unisex marriages, single parenthood, plural marriages are all among the to-be-accepted ""options"" sincerely sponsored without scanting interpersonal values.

Pub Date: May 10, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION