Women and Men: A Philosophical Conversation

A bestseller in France, this set of opinionated conversations on male-female relations serves up a very Gallic intellectual discourse on love, sex, jealousy, seduction and infidelity. Giroud, former government minister, feminist journalist and cofounder of L'Express, advocates women's independence and financial autonomy, even advising women to avoid living with a man if possible. Levy, a philosopher (Barbarism with a Human Face), believes in Freudianism, endorses the ideal of monogamous fidelity and is skeptical of the claim that a sexual revolution ever occurred. Sparks fly as these conversationalists discuss love at first sight, physical attraction and ugliness, why couples succeed or fail, divorce, the erotic as an energizing component of marriage and the chilling impact of AIDS on sexual behavior. Alternately insightful and pretentious, their witty talks sparkle with allusions to Balzac, Proust, Sartre, Anais Nin, Georges Bataille, Goethe, Joyce and many other writers. (Jan.)