Love And Marriage (Book Review: The Average American Marriage, Chad Kultgen)

Chad Kultgen's book, "The Average American Marriage" is a sequel to his 2007 book "The Average American Male." I read the previous book and I kind of liked it, in a perverse pornocentric way. It told of how a straight young man and how, from what I recall, his mind was riddled with thoughts about sex non-stop. I thought then that it was difficult to surmise the point of the book: a peek into the mind of a male? an exercise in documenting how to sow oats? a variation of Penthouse Forums? So color me not surprised that this new book, more or less, follows the same format, only this time we fast forward to the young marriage years. Being unmarried and childless, I cannot say I totally relate to his life, so it gave me a big window to the mind of a young heterosexual married man. My friends don't even fall in that category (Actually, I do have a couple, I just never talk to them) The book would polarize people, I suspect. I can't see how a book with frank sex talk would make some people happy. It's rawness is its biggest strength and weakness. Even I blushed at some of the words, and believe you me, I have seen it all. There's a lot more to the book than that, though. The story makes a statement about what we give up to get what we desire. For all the jaded talk in the book, we also glimpse a tender young man who is just like all of us: searching for happiness and our place in the world. And times have certainly changed: the character in the book has a gay best friend, and even gets invited to a gay wedding! (A bone, ehem, for the gays!) I liked the book, but I feel like I have read it before.

BC-15