The Autobiography of My Body

Returning to Pittsburgh after his father suffers a heart attack and his own twenty-year marriage dissolves, Charles Bradford finds unexpected and explosive passion with the lusty Andrea as he seeks a reconciliation with his estranged father

Freelance journalist Charles Bradford, the libidinous, divorced narrator of Guy's freewheeling psychosexual romp, seems like a Casanova--until we learn that he likes to be whipped while making love and that all he really wants is to be hugged by his mommy. There's more, as well, to other characters than meets the eye. Andrea, Charles's never-monogamous girlfriend who runs a feminist bookstore, is a shrill posturer (and self-deceiver)--but when the reader discovers that Andrea's father sexually abused her during childhood, she becomes more sympathetic. Other characters of note include Charles's boisterous father, "the Senator," a Pittsburgh lawyer who at first seems a perfect example of the distant parent. When he enlists his son's help in a malpractice lawsuit, the two achieve a touching reconciliation. Charles's older sister Helen, a lesbian and a psychotherapist, is also effectively drawn. Unfortunately, the narrator's narcissistic ego overwhelms a story line freighted with psychobabble, endless introspection and obligatory sex scenes.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Recovering from a disastrous marriage, Charles Bradford returns to Pittsburgh to be near his ailing father. There he encounters Andrea, and they embark on a heated affair that causes Charles to reexamine his life. Starved of affection as a child and convinced that he has failed as an adult, Charles embraces sex as a salve for his psychic wounds. Charles's odyssey takes him into many back alleys and dead ends, but eventually forces him to confront his own emotional and sexual identity. "I believe in talking about the life of the body," says Charles. "If we don't acknowledge it, if we don't make it part of us, it poisons our lives." This is a novel that takes the body seriously; the sex (all heterosexual) is steamy and frequent, but never gratuitous. Though not for the prudish, this exceptional novel by the author of Football Dreams ( LJ 12/15/80) and Second Brother ( LJ 10/1/85) deserves a wide audience. Recommended.
- David Keymer, SUNY Inst. of Technology, Utica
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.