The Love Quest: A Sexual Odyssey

A follow-up to her first volume of sexual memoirs (The Love Habit), this lightweight and poorly written book details the erotic life of Cumming, a socially prominent Englishwoman whose first husband was a cousin of the Queen Mother. It begins in 1952, when she left her second husband at the age of 35 to embark on a series of sexual adventures in such enticing locales as Morocco, Egypt, Rome and Paris with men of varied ethnic backgrounds and sexual appetites. Although chiefly devoted to graphic accounts of Cumming's multiple love affairs, the narrative also touches on her work as a translator and adapter of film scripts and includes descriptions of the countries she has visited. Cummings passionate life (covered here through 1966) was probably a lot more fun to live than it is to read about in a memoir more tedious than titillating. (Nov.)