cover image Sexual Arrangements: Marriage and the Temptation of Infidelity

Sexual Arrangements: Marriage and the Temptation of Infidelity

Janet Reibstein. Scribner Book Company, $20 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-684-19540-7

For as long as one may wait for insights from this repetitive, rambling and cliche-ridden discussion of infidelity and its causes, the wait may not be worth it. Best here is an interesting account of the different ways in which adolescent boys and girls become acquainted with sex (though their relevance to extramarital affairs is unclear). Despite their numbing litany of scenarios and motives, the authors conclude that the real problem is not infidelity but modern marriage itself. Marriage is too exclusive, they state. According to them, affairs were once considered acceptable, a debatable view. The authors appear to suggest that a few affairs may be just the thing to revive the married. And, offering no statistics, they report that long-term couples experience little sexual satisfaction. Reibstein is a lecturer at Cambridge University; Richards is a reader in human development there. (Aug.)