Women and Love

Cheerleading her readers through each page, Kirshenbaum believes that despite the embitterment caused by hurtful or unsuccessful love experiences, women should never settle for less than the best in their relationships. The result feels like a heart-to-heart gabfest with girlfriends, complete with casual language, self-disclosure, harsh truths and borderline-crude analogies. The anecdotes of women grappling with a variety of love and relationship problems are abundant enough to satisfy even the most avid relationship voyeur. With the use of many examples, Kirshenbaum illustrates eight ""make or break experiences of love,"" offering diagnostic and prescriptive advice for each. This advice is clearly intended for the woman first and the relationship second--she is relatively quick to advocate dissolving a liaison and unfortunately does not specifically address the merits of remaining in a relationship for the sake of commitment. The common thread of advice running through her chapters is sound, however. Women should clarify their own desires and expectations for love, be honest about them with themselves and their partners and hold out for a partner who can meet their expectations. Above all, she emphasizes, the only requirement for experiencing true love is knowing and loving oneself. (June)