Men in Love

Even though this book was printed a long time ago, it is still very relevant. I was surprised how great of a shape it was in(almost untouched, ready to be a gift if need be). I would recomend the sender to a friend, as well as the book itself. It touches very deep subjects of human nature and sexuality. After starting to read it, I can't get enough of my husband!! Dear girls and women: please find and read this masterpiece!! It will open your eyes, minds and hearts.

A woman softball player told just about everyone in our league about this book back in the 70’s and we all thought it was a fun read. Today, it might get you blacklisted.

I thought this book was interesting. I didn't find much of anything in the book to be shocking, or even surprising, although not all of it was my cup of tea (or cup of pee in some cases). I guess that's probably the result of the Internet, 2 Girls 1 Cup makes everything before look tame.Older and or more repressed people still might find this book to be quite shocking. This book is not, repeat not, a self-help relationship book. It contains the detailed, kinky and sometimes violent fantasies of real men. If you would like to understand male sexuality better, this might be a good book for you. If you are a male with any doubts about whether you are "normal," this is a good book for you. A guy might get off on these fantasies, but personally reading the stories was not something I found to be a turn-on. Those fantasies which did not have any outright turnoffs were much too short for me to work up much of a hot and bother (something Nancy explains is normal since men don't take nearly as long to get there, or stay there as long one they've arrived).I found some of Nancy's analysis to be fascinating and probably accurate. Other parts, not so much. It definitely does seem from the stories themselves that early experiences can have a profound impact on a man's sexuality, but I don't think EVERY sexual preference, mainstream or kinky, relates back to childhood. Which is pretty much how I feel about Freud.I would have given it a 3.5 if possible.

good book.

While there are some fascinating chapters to this book, for example the parts that cover straight men who have fantasies about sex with men, and the part on bisexuality, the author's chapter on homosexuality is really "off". It's true by her own admission that when she solicited stories she ended up receiving virtually no responses from gay men willing to tell their fantasies and secrets. The only ones who did were men in analysis, which already sets up a situation in which the result is going to be skewed if they are viewing their fantasies from the standpoint that there is something wrong with what they desire. But I think it's Friday's own bizarre reliance upon Freudianism which undermines the book. Wildly generalized statements abound: "while most psychiatrists no longer label homosexuality as pathologic, they nevertheless usually say it is psychologically determined by fixation at an early level of development". Really? This flies in the face of the growing evidence that sexual identity is something determined long before a child is even born. It is an old Freudian model that relies upon familial conditioning to explain something that is as indelible as the color of one's eyes. Then she says that the "fact that S & M plays so large a role in the gay life is usually given as additional evidence that homosexuality has its root in the pregenital stage of life dominated by spanking, discipline, punishment, and details of excretion". Wow, really? So gay people are naturally inclined to S & M and they have a common history of punishment in childhood that involved spanking and excretion? At one point she has several teenage boys write their fantasies, then while she says that it is not her place to determine whether they are really homosexual or not, she does so anyway by saying she questions their self-identification at such an age rather than letting them speak for themselves without her qualification or appraisal.While the book shows that sexual longing and desire cross a large spectrum of identities, that doesn't mean people stop being what their identity is. The wonderful part about the section where straight men fantasize about sex with men is that it shows two things at once--men who identify as straight and men who at the same time fantasize at times about sex with other men. Friday doesn't question these mens' sexual identity in the process nor should she. She doesn't confuse identity with fantasies or desires. But such an attitude is missing in her approach to men who identify as homosexual. There an identity IS comprised of the actions and environment in which it was formed from childhood on, not something pre-given, and this skews the whole take on homosexuality that her book offers to the reader. Instead of a range of sexual fantasies from gay men which would be no less fascinating and complex as the fantasies of straight men, we get an essay on the psychological underpinnings of homosexual identity.Without the Freudian commentary the book as a series of fantasies written by men would have been fascinating, it's a shame that it missed the boat.

As a grandma, I wish I had read this book in my 20s!!!!!

This book was written 35 years ago and is very out of date. There were a few (very few) stories/fantasies that were interesting but most were either juvenile, ridiculous or repulsive (diapers anyone?). Half the book is Freudian commentary, which I think is hooey. Save your money.

I’ve bought this book a handful of times. Can be sexy at times and disturbing at times. Worth it. Everyone woman should read it.

I simply loved this book... I have brought several more of Nancy Fridays books to read,you have to be a little open minded to read this as it is quite explicit at times...so if you are a "prude" avoid reading it as it well might offend you!!!

Depending on what type of person you are you may find this quite shocking, even Nancy Friday admitted to not knowing what to think of one of the fantasies in this book and goes to consult two other fellow psychologists on one occasion.Overall I'll say it's a good read and an insight into how the opposite sex can sometimes think. I can't say for sure how I would feel if men were THIS honest in real life on a regular basis. There is a review on this book by a woman called Baloo who stated that this book, in a way, ended her relationship "Until I read this book. I suddenly doubted his reassuring words of "I think only of you". With good reason, after I told him about all I'd learnt from this book, he confessed he'd been lying."It was a scary thought and the book was made use of in one way or the other I suppose! And naturally I did the same and prodded my own boyfriend on a few subjects but the truth is fantasies are fantasies and they aren't real for a reason; mostly because they probably won't happen. Love and sex are two different things, as long as you keep that in mind as well as an open mind this book is pretty damned good! And it seems men and women probably aren't that different when it comes to sex. I'd be lying if I had said I'd never thought of something wild and inappropriate while in a relationship. A majority of the men in this book don't even act out their fantasies or the fantasies are linked to experiences that they wished went "another way" so to speak.The point is we all fantasize about things that are unlikely to happen or will never really pursue in reality but hardly ever talk about and that's why I love this book, if not all of Nancy Friday's books, because you get to hear all those nitty gritty details.My only reason for missing out on the five star mark is because I didn't manage to read the whole book as I was in a rush to lend it out and because not all of Miss Friday's psychoanalysis sounds believable, often I get the feeling she ought to have just written ..."God....dunno what that was about." and moved on. It sounds as though she is making excuses for why some of the men think the way they do and I'm not sure if there has to be an answer to everything.My conclusion is, if you are sensitive and of course a woman and can be slightly envious then just LEAVE this book alone and go for Nancy Friday's "My Secret Garden" instead or "Forbidden Flowers" which is more about women's fantasies, then maybe you'll be more prepared and can move on to Men in love.If however, you are very open minded and tend to think a bit wayward yourself at night then do buy this book and share it even. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my guy to read this but I did manage to lend it out to a male friend and I'll be interested to hear his take on the book. In the mean time, it gave me and my partner lots to talk about and each conversation was fun if not surprising. If you happen to do the same just remember your partner is with you and not out there acting out those fantasies....you hope, as so I! (Or you'll end up in Baloo's position: constantly haunted.) We should be free to fantasies, after all, why think about something that can happen in reality? That would just be boring.We dream about being millionaires, not working a 9-5 as most of us already do.

If you want the truth read Nancy Friday's books.

Still a good research read after all these years and plenty of material for all those people now preparing to write novels along the lines of FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

Great addition to every adults bookcase. Thoroughly riveting from start to finish.