Lust In Translation, after the fact

I started August with a big pile of unfinished business in the reading department.  July found me with no follow through, picking up books here and there, starting them and then putting them down and never looking back.  Needless to say, I fell short of my reading goals last month.  This month, I was determined to get back on that horse and regain the momentum I had going on in June.

I decided to start with Lust in Translation by Pamela Druckerman.  I’ve gone on and on (and on and on) about this book and how excited I was to hear that it had been written.  A comparison of attitudes and practices governing adultery in different countries around the world, this puppy was right up my alley.  While satisfying my endless interest in the subject of fidelity, it also scratched (just a little, but still…) my itch to travel.

The book begins by introducing general ideas about adultery in the way that a typical American would comprehend them.  (There was no mention of Canada casually or statistically so I can only assume that our tendencies run similar to those of our much mentioned neighbours to the south.) After a lengthy focus on how infidelity fits into our lives, Druckerman devotes attention to specific nations, each notable for their unique views on the topic.  France, Russia, Japan and South Africa each have their own chapters.  Some of what she tells is shocking.  France is a much more constrained nation than we’ve been led to believe, Russia is not.  Nobody’s getting any in Japan, but in South Africa, sex takes precedence over life.

All in all, it’s a pretty stats heavy read, but it was exactly what I had hoped it was: an explanation of how adultery fits into the world in all different ways.  If you have even the slightest interest in exploring how others conduct their relationships both primary and peripheral, check it out.  I reveled in it from beginning to end and I’m convinced that I should be living elsewhere in the world, not necessarily to be able to cheat, but just to fit into a way more romantically laid back society.    As the friend who is reading it now asked in an email this morning "Hey, were you born in Europe?"  No, but I probably should have been.

Read an excerpt here.

Pick up a copy and let me know what you think.

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