Amazon.com Review
We live in a world obsessed with (and appalled by) sex. Open any magazine--certainly any gay male magazine--and you will find it clogged with sexualized images. But a fundamental, hardcore American puritanism still prevents open, honest, and useful discussions of sexuality. While this is true for heterosexuality, it is even more so for gay men and lesbians. Jack Hart's Gay Sex is a fine, witty, and eminently reasonable guide to being a sexually active gay man in the world today. Like Felice Picano and Charles Silverstein's The New Joy of Gay Sex (a classic in the field), Hart's book is an all-purpose guide to living a sexually energetic and fulfilling life. Gay Sex gives gay men all they need to know, from tips on how to meet men (in bars, on the Net, in the street) to negotiating safe sex (from talking to finding the right condom) to dealing with relationships (be it sex-buddy or monogamous). There are also discussions on the mental-health aspects of masturbation, fantasy, dating, bondage, S/M, recreational drugs, role-playing, and general physical well-being. Hart's writing is clear, concise, and informative; he never overloads the reader with too much scientific information or confusing detail and never adopts a patronizing or moralizing tone. By treating sex as a vital and exhilarating aspect of everyday life, he manages to both introduce these topics to the novice in unthreatening and helpful ways and inform and enlighten those who have been out and about for years. --Michael Bronski