Thy Neighbor’s Wife is a marvel of English literature covering human sexual behavior and our collective reactions to it. In narrative fashion the book twists together various tales that help paint a picture of the way sex and sexuality changed in the United States between the 1950’s and the 1970’s. It paints a clear portrait of the so-called sexual revolution that swept the United States in the years prior to the AIDS epidemic. At the same time the book reaches further through both time and space to show the very real connections between things like obscenity laws in Victorian England and free speech fights in 20th century America.
I cannot overstate the value of Thy Neighbor’s Wife which addresses several topics of interest in a way that was rarely if ever attempted prior. Or perhaps even since. Author Gay Talese describes the rise of everything from adult magazines like Playboy, Screw and Hustler to the emergence of swinger’s clubs and massage parlors in unmatched detail.
The book was written by a man who involved himself in the story if only as an impartial reporter. Rather than peer in from the sidelines with pearl-clutching spectators, Talese jumped into the fray. As Katie Roiphe would later describe:
He is both there and not there; he is in the massage parlor getting jerked off, but he is also thinking, ‘Who is the masseuse? What was her childhood like? How do her other customers feel about their jobs?’ In the room there is always the writer, the observer watching the room…”.
Gay Talese spent an incredible 9 years traveling across the United States to research Thy Neighbor’s Wife. And even more time writing it. By the time the book was finally published in 1981, it had already achieved widespread notoriety due to extensive if sensationalist coverage in the media. The movie rights to Thy Neighbor’s Wife were even purchased for $2,500,000, which at the time was the highest fee ever paid for such a thing. Once it became readily available to the public, Thy Neighbor’s Wife quickly became a best seller and remained on the New York Times Best Sellers list for months.
I first entered the United States in the early 1980’s. By the time I became well versed enough in the English language to make it through a 500 page book Thy Neighbor’s Wife had already fallen off the radar for most readers. The mix of outrage and interest had died down in the general population who found in the book more of an authentic account of changes in American society than a titillating tale of sexual debauchery. But when I came first came across the book years after its publication I was instantly intrigued. With the help of a dictionary I read the entire thing from cover to cover over a period of just two days.
Decades later some passages of the book still stand out in my mind for being as cutting as they are straightforward, honest and frankly, self-evident. For example:
The penis is not by nature a monogamous organ. It knows no moral code. It was designed by nature for waste, it craves variety, and nothing less than castration will elininate the allure of prostitution, fornication, adultery or pornography.”
Talese’s account of Screw publisher Al Goldstein’s way of covering massage parlors also stands out, for reasons that may be obvious.
It was Goldstein’s intention to visit, unannounced, each parlor in the city, new and the old, paying the same price as any other customer; and after experiencing the manipulative skills of the various masseuses, and keeping mental notes on the cleanliness of each establishment as well as the courtesy of the management, he would then write a brief description of each parlor in Screw and assign to each a rating of from one to four stars.”
While I am very obliviously not of the caliber of men such as Talese or even Goldstein, this may all sound familiar to regular readers of Rockit Reports. Especially Talese’s description of his own work. As he says, “It is not an exhibitionist’s confession; it is not a journalist’s contribution to pornography.” Instead, he “has a serious interest in watching his fellow human beings, in listening to them, and in presenting honestly what he has seen and heard.” Needless to say, I recognize and identify with that interest to this day.
Thy Neighbor’s Wife is a real page turner. While it does slow down slightly towards the end and take a somewhat odd detour into third person perspective, the book is an enlightening and entertaining read from beginning to end. It remains its relevance today as few, if any, books have ever matched its masterful methods and prose. Thy Neighbor’s Wife is not perfect, but it is pretty close. I give it four-and-a-half stars.
The post Review: Thy Neighbor’s Wife by Gay Talese appeared first on Rockit Reports.