Lust in Translation: Infidelity from Tokyo to Tennessee - Softcover

Druckerman, Pamela

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143113291 ISBN 13: 9780143113294

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2008

Synopsis

Compared to the citizens of just about every other nation, Americans are the least adept at having affairs, have the most trouble enjoying them, and suffer the most in their aftermath and Pamela Druckerman has the facts to prove it. The journalist's surprising findings include:

• Russian spouses don't count beach resort flings as infidelity
• South Africans consider drunkenness an adequate excuse for extramarital sex
• Japanese businessmen believe, "If you pay, it's not cheating."

Voyeuristic and packed with eyebrow-raising statistics and interviews, Lust in Translation is her funny and fact-filled world tour of infidelity that will give new meaning to the phrase "practicing monogamy."

About this title

About the Author

Pamela Druckerman is a former staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal, where she covered foreign affairs. She has also written for the New York Times and the Washington Post, and has appeared on the Today Show and NPR's Morning Edition, among many other outlets. She is the author of the international bestseller Bringing up Bébé and Lust in Translation, which was translated into eight languages. She has a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University, and lives in Paris.

From Publishers Weekly

Former foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal now living in Paris, Druckerman offers an anecdotal rather than a scholarly exploration of the international etiquette of adultery. From American prudishness about the subject to French discretion, and from Russian vehemence about the obligatory affair to Japanese adherence to the single marital futon, one factor rings true in all cases: people lie about sex. Druckerman interviews numerous adulterers, starting with the conflicted Americans who "gain status by radiating an aura of monogamy" while sneaking around on the side; guilt more often than not brings them to confession and absolution by therapy. Druckerman is at pains to uncover reliable statistics about infidelity where such research is suppressed, such as in Islamic countries or those formerly Communist; in contrast, Finland demonstrates the best sex research, e.g., clearly half of men there enjoy "parallel relationships." Druckerman concludes from one study that people in warmer climes cheat more (Scandinavia is the exception), while people in wealthy countries tend to cheat less than those in poor countries (exception: Kazakhstan). Druckerman found that the rules of sexual cultures differ widely: adultery is the least dangerous social evil in Russia, while in Japan, buying sex doesn't count as cheating. Druckerman's work is quirky, digressive and media quotable. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0143113291
• ISBN 13: 9780143113294
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 293