The Lover's Companion

With a keen eye and her trademark titillating humor, Dr. Ruth Westheimer explores how art and verse can enhance desire in this lush literary aphrodisiac. The selections, compiled by editor Charles Sullivan, couple Ginsberg with Hockney, Donne with Lichtenstein, Sappho with O'Keeffe. And as in the best relationships, each unconventional match exposes new, surprising aspects of both partners. Through chapter introductions and commentary, Dr. Ruth, helpful and refreshingly honest, reveals these nuances-and the ways in which they can touch readers.

The full-color illustrations, all masterpieces, include paintings by Chagall, Magritte, and Bronzino, photographs by Man Ray and Nan Goldin, and erotic sculptures and prints from ancient India and Japan. Pairing a total of 60 poems and artworks, this stimulating anthology is sure to please lovers of all persuasions.

Two experts in the fields of psychology, art and sex have teamed up to put together this layered, pleasantly gossipy book. Sullivan, a social psychologist who has edited 10 literature and art anthologies, redacts the writings of the famed Dr. Ruth Westheimer, sex therapist. Dividing the book into chapters like "Awareness," "Our Bodies," One-Night Stands" and "Enduring Love," Sullivan pairs a chosen poem with a work of art (mostly paintings of female nudes) and a musing by Dr. Ruth (in a no-nonsense, sans-serif font). A Pierre Bonnard painting called The Toilette and an Alan Dienstag poem called "Sylvia" are used to illustrate the condition of retarded ejaculation. Opposite a Balthus painting of an adolescent girl, Westheimer describes how her height in childhood gave her angst about never marrying. The full-color art encompasses the photography of Man Ray and Cindy Sherman, the paintings of Braque, Dal¡ and Degas, and even an occasional piece of sculpture. Baudelaire's "Giantess" mirrors Gottfried Helnwein's Lulu, a giantess in garters-other juxtapositions are more of an artistic stretch. As a stimulus to sexual reflection, this book works both subtly and directly; in the "Nobody's Perfect" chapter, Dr. Ruth suggests a visit to an art museum for people too ashamed of their bodies to bare them to their mates. While this is a practical book, some potential buyers may balk at the unlikely menage … trois of high art, verse and sex advice.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.