Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy

More than five years after his last book, Miller (Blue Like Jazz) returns to his brand of telling it like it is—this time about relationships. In a conversational tone, he discloses thoughts about intimacy and how to find it: taking off the masks worn to hide the true self. The personality we show to the world often is that of a performer, created to hide who we are while trying to win approval and get attention, he says. Miller’s contemplations come as the result of courting his wife, Betsy, who changed his thinking when it came to relationships with women. Older, married readers might chuckle at the author’s description of Betsy as near perfect, but younger readers will relate to the frankly expressed concerns about pressure to fit in, difficulties in the dating scene, and hard lessons learned, some with the help of counseling. Short chapters tackle topics that range from personal memories and experiences to practical advice about factors that affect people as they develop relationships. (Feb.)