Promises, promises -- that's the tone of an entire species of
nonbook book, of which Jon R. Bloch's
Finding Your Leading Man: How to Create Male-to-Male Intimacy
and Make Your Relationship a Blockbuster is but the most recent example. But hope
springs
eternal for those needing directions to a better life, so, just as with
coming-out books and gay travel guides, there can never be too many
how-to's, especially if they're as jaunty, even jolly, as this one.
It takes Bloch 312 pages to say, essentially, "be yourself," except for
these changes ... In that, his advice doesn't differ much from
what Eric Marcus sells in The Male Couples Guide,
Betty Berzon
sells in The Intimacy Dance, or Rik Isensee sells in
Love
Between Men, to cite just three of nearly 20 such books currently in
print..
But to make his point, the author, an anthropologist and sociologist in
his teaching life, first cleverly and concisely categorizes gay men into
12
types: The Blue Collar Guy, The Creature of Habit, The Discriminating
Shopper, The Hyper-Romantic, The Misfit, The Nice Boy, The Pal, The
Party
Boy, The Perennial Closet Case, The Sexpot, The Shy Snob, and The
Therapy
Junkie. Anyone drawn to astrology or the enneagram will be familiar with
Bloch's approach to defining personality types, and with the book's
second
section, in which he pairs each type up with the other 11, highlighting
what's good and what's bad about each match. Part three gets down to the
nitty-gritty, with advice on how to become and remain a couple, and
even,
practically, how to break up.
A dash of psychology, a pinch of insight into human nature, a healthy
splash of common sense -- that's the recipe for this kind of book, and
Bloch's a skilled and entertaining emotional chef.
-- Richard Labonté
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