Why New Joy and More Joy of Sex were put together is beyond me because as the author Alex Comfort says, More Joy "covers entirely new ground." Indeed. As a book born of the birth control pill and legal abortion, it certainly seems to uncover a lot more. Women are now free to explore their sexual selves to give themselves the pleasure that had been denied to them. Men don't quite know who they are sexually anymore. Comfort, to his credit, gives us a very intimate look at what was going on with both men and women in response to this new sexuality in the early 70s.
While New Joy of Sex claimed to be the 90s' guide to gourmet lovemaking, with sections called 'Appetizers,' 'The Main Dish,' 'Condiments' and 'Dessert,' for example, this More Joy of Sex is a 'lovemaking companion' to it. Unfortunately, a companion in this book is one you feel affection towards with no time constraints, meaning it can be as long as 'just once' or a lifetime. Free love is not a term used here, but 'sharing' is.
What, praytell, is 'sharing?'
Sharing, according to Comfort, is not an orgy, but simply sharing your intimacy with your partner with another couple. It can involve gentle kisses and touching, but not necessarily sexual intercourse unless everybody feels right about it. It means being sensual more than sexual. I can see how this takes the pressure off of performance for the sexually-confused men and would be a freeing experience for the women, as well. Some men would just live in a house like this on the West Coast (Sandstone was mentioned) to escape their lives while others came and went for various reasons.
Is there anything helpful about this book?
I really had an unpleasant reaction to this book promoting uninhibited sex and all the different sexual positions it shows until I realized that they were doing the best they could under the circumstances. It was, in many ways, like sex had just been discovered and they were children playing with it. HIV and AIDS wouldn't make it on the scene for another decade and I really don't know where the disease sprang from, if it was this country or another, so I'm not going to blame anyone. I'm glad I stuck it out with this book in order to understand and not merely judge.
What all does it cover?
Well, Comfort claims that it is about insight and how to develop as people who enjoy lovemaking. This would seem to be a sex manual with a conscience and yet I do not see the words 'romance' or 'passion' once in the book. In fact, he contends that even in marriage you should share "sensual" play with another couple. But, not to be a prude, I'll just say he covers marriage, encounter groups (many like cults), gay love, threesomes, groups, meditation, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, body language, skin, body anxiety, positions, giving head and so on.
Final thoughts
I hate the stark, black and white drawings in here. Some are colored drawings, but all are ugly and a turn-off to me. New Joy of Sex at least had quality pictures that were realistic and attractive-looking. There's a lot of pubic hair wherever you look, a veritable forest, and the positions are so cold with no smiles that it really disgusted me. As for the text, it was interesting to see how they thought in '74, but I think you could probably read New Joy and skip More Joy now you've read my review. :-)
P.S. I reviewed New Joy of Sex just a couple weeks ago.
Recommended:
