Sex, a Love Story

Jerome Gold

Paperback

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The novel takes place at the end of the Eisenhower administration and the beginning of the Kennedy era. It is set in Orange County, California. Bob and Jen are the children of parents who entered the middle class after World War II. Life for these kids has not reached the level of affluence the professional class knows. Life, especially for middle-class (white) kids is often boring. Anticipating life after high school, kids are concerned with finding work or going to college or into the military. Much of the sex is erotic, although other parts read more clinically (as in: Oh, I see. If I do this, he'll do that. Or, if I do that, she'll do this.) If, for Bob and Jen, sex is at first a way of exploring the adult world, it soon becomes a way to defy the world. But the world intrudes. Bob worries about money, the recession, and finding and holding a job. The book emphasizes the kinds of unskilled-labor jobs Bob finds, the people he meets, and his anxiety when he is out of work. While sex with Jen and his growing love for her are immeasurably important to Bob, so is his desire to write and travel, "to learn how the world works." Jen and that imagined life are rivals. Bob knows this, but wants both. Jen doesn't see herself as a rival to Bob's future, but as a part of it. Even more than Bob does, she sees herself as a sexual being. Both characters grow increasingly complex as they gain experience of the world. While their relationship ends, or appears to end, each of them moving toward a different way of living in the world, we can say, ultimately, not that love conquers all, but that it endures, whether or not we will it, despite the world and despite ourselves. This is a pre-feminist novel in that while feminism has not yet become a movement in the years most of this story occurs, many of the issues that feminism is concerned with are depicted in rudimentary form in this book.

Book Details

Publisher: Black Heron Press
Publish Date: Jul 1st, 2021
Pages: 349
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.40in - 5.40in - 0.90in - 1.10lb
EAN: 9781936364367
Categories: • Coming of Age• Literary

About the Author

Jerome Gold is the author of sixteen books, including novels, memoirs, poetry, and oral histories. He has published stories, essays, poems, and reviews in Boston Review, Chiron review, Fiction Review, Left Bank, Flash Fiction, and other journals and magazines.

Praise for this book

"Sergeant Dickinson belongs on the high, narrow shelf of first-rate fiction about battlefield experience" --The New York Times Book Review

"A brooding, imaginative work that goes beyond many factual memoirs available. Highly recommended" --Library Journal

"Gold has shaped a powerful, merciless novel" --Booklist

"I've finished reading Jerome Gold's terrific book [Paranoia & Heartbreak] cover to cover without a break. Was up till 2:30 this morning with it. It's a powerful and very tender-hearted book without a soupcon of sentimentality. Unforgettable!" --Russell Banks, author of Cloudsplitter

"Jerome Gold has been in danger most of his adult life, in ways both visible and hidden. As a soldier in Vietnam and later a rehabilitation counselor in a Washington state juvenile facility, his survival hung on luck and intelligent caution, some days in equal measure. As a writer, he seems to live with the same ratio of risk and careful craft" --The Seattle Times

"Jerome Gold is a great storyteller and a brilliant writer" --VVA Veteran, Books in brief

"[Sex, A Love Story] is a fine saga not just about a sexual relationship or love, as the title suggests, but about new adults who field sex, the future, a breakup, new beginnings, and full circles of return and connection. It's a warm story that will engage any reader interested in how relationships grow, change, and eventually...embrace the possibilities of the world." --D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review

"Maturing in an era of social upheaval and cultural unrest, there is something tempting about abandoning reality for the thrill of instant gratification. For many millennials and fellow Gen Z'ers, 2020 has been incredibly befuddling to navigate, what without perceptions on life, understanding of society, and faith in supposedly trusted authority figures changing from day to day." --Caitlln Boos, She's SINGLE Magazine

"At first an antidote to normal teen angst, sex between Jen and Bob takes on a life of its own. If sex is at first a way of exploring the adult world, later it becomes a way to defy it." --Bekah Jorgensen, Motherhood Moment

"Once I began the story I couldn't put it down because I am a mom of a pre-teen boy who will one day have a girlfriend and face these feelings. This is a book I would recommend to other adults." --Glenda Cates, The Mommies Review