A book marinated in provocative assertions that are certain to instigate debate and productive discussion.
A witty discussion of the indirect role sex plays across political, economic, religious, and cultural landscapes.
Veteran pop-culture journalist Benes, who has worked for Esquire and Deadspin, first addresses the sordid history of monogamy and its pervasiveness in Western society as more than just a social construct but rather a conditioned and normalized mating system. The author presents the argument that devotion as a kind of “sexual conditioning” has both contentment consequences (i.e., divorce via infidelity) and social benefits. Benes then examines the public perception of political sex scandals throughout history (including our “Founding Fornicators”) and what he considers the “true significance” of pornography, and he discusses uproarious case studies on the hidden sex-related histories of products like corn flakes and graham crackers. Having snarkily documented a visit to a Scientology center for Esquire, Benes is no stranger to immersion journalism, but he digs freely and critically into more scandalous territory in chapters detailing the failure of the condom initiative in Uganda in stemming AIDS infections, veiled homosexuality in the military, and the “prevalence of gay priests” in the Catholic church. Throughout the narrative, the author provides generous, often entertaining footnotes—e.g., “law scholar Richard Posner theorized Catholic rituals might attract homosexuals. The adornment, theatrical expression, music, incense, and lavish garb might appeal more to a gay man than a straight man.” As a probing, multifaceted commentary on the social science of sex and society, Benes’ book succeeds in corralling a litany of ideas and opinions that may ruffle some readers’ feathers. Regardless of the possible unpopularity of his conclusions, however, the author consistently makes salient points: “The only thing perplexing about a powerful person using their traits and resources to obtain sex is that people are surprised whenever it happens.” Benes ably explores society’s perceptions and applications of sex in ways that are “worth studying, rather than sensationalizing.”
A book marinated in provocative assertions that are certain to instigate debate and productive discussion.Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4742-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
