Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto

Sex columnist Zane (coauthor, Best. Sex. Ever.) calls for an end to sexual shame in this revealing if uneven memoir. He starts by recounting a mostly nonreligious upbringing that nevertheless left him feeling deep-seated sexual shame, driven partly by severe OCD and intrusive thoughts. While at Vassar, he moved beyond heterosexual hookups with the aid of alcohol and cocaine, and after coming to terms with his bisexuality, he pursued his prodigious sexual appetites (by his count, he has had around 2,000 partners). He intercuts accounts of his exploits with insightful discussions of rejection, assumptions about bisexuality, and the benefits (strengthening queer community) and drawbacks (promoting infidelity and fetishization) of gay hookup apps. Zane recounts coming to terms with his vomit fetish and his discovery, while in a polyamorous relationship, that he might be fraysexual (someone primarily attracted to people they do not know well). His arguments about the complications of bisexual visibility are particularly salient, though his cavalier anti-condom attitude and his at-times smug humor (“I’m working on screwing an Oscar winner to achieve my sexual EGOT”) might alienate readers. Zane pushes the envelope, but the results aren’t always worth the work. (May)