Chastened: No More Sex in the City
Hephzibah Anderson
Chastened: No More Sex in the City
For the last year Hephzibah Anderson has flirted, dated, swooned, and sighed. She has been tantalized by intense conversations, lingering looks and clinches in the back of taxis. She has watched dawn break cradled in the arms of a dangerous ex, sipped cocktails against the Manhattan skyline with a dark-eyed companion, and dined al fresco in the English countryside with a man who promises to be more than just a friend. She has talked, embraced, kissed. But she has not had sex. Turning on its head the maxim that declares romance dead, journalist Hephzibah Anderson has thrown herself headfirst into finding romance in an age obsessed with sex. "Chastened: Adventures in Abstinence" is the story of her personal quest to stay chaste for a year, fusing a candid and pithy month-by-month account of her personal challenge with an exploration of what sex means in the twenty-first-century western world.
3.3 out of 5 based on 3 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Sex & Sexuality |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
256 |
| RRP |
£12.99 |
| Date of Publication |
July 2009 |
| ISBN |
978-0701183660 |
| Publisher |
Chatto & Windus |
| |
For the last year Hephzibah Anderson has flirted, dated, swooned, and sighed. She has been tantalized by intense conversations, lingering looks and clinches in the back of taxis. She has watched dawn break cradled in the arms of a dangerous ex, sipped cocktails against the Manhattan skyline with a dark-eyed companion, and dined al fresco in the English countryside with a man who promises to be more than just a friend. She has talked, embraced, kissed. But she has not had sex. Turning on its head the maxim that declares romance dead, journalist Hephzibah Anderson has thrown herself headfirst into finding romance in an age obsessed with sex. "Chastened: Adventures in Abstinence" is the story of her personal quest to stay chaste for a year, fusing a candid and pithy month-by-month account of her personal challenge with an exploration of what sex means in the twenty-first-century western world.
Read an extract from the book at MailOnline
John Crace's Digested Read (The Guardian)
Reviews
The Independent
Christopher Hawtree
“For all the unabashed descriptions of a fling's joy, Chastened continually meditates upon human relationships, those unspoken words, those foolish things as redolent as any lusty yell... Whether reminiscing or discussing Elizabeth Abbott's hefty history of celibacy, Chastened is more than fashionably dinky. One hopes that Anderson will write the novels evidently within her.”
10/07/2009
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The Observer
Ariane Sherine
“The account is rigorous and earnest, verging on the academic. And yet, this memoir of notches not carved is surprisingly readable, displaying a melancholy tenderness and candid self-awareness rarely found in confessional writing... though at times it's a depressing read, Anderson declines to flaunt her misery. Rather, Chastened feels like a genuine attempt to find a solution to a loveless life, and articulates the thoughts of many single women with a purposeful freshness.”
12/07/2009
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The Scotsman
Melanie McGrath
“...it's a high-risk strategy to piggyback on one of chick-lit-flick's iconic productions in the subtitle of your book. (And it's Sex AND the City, not IN the City, by the way). What made Sex and the City so great was the fact that it never took itself seriously, while showcasing truckloads of luvverly clothes and ever-so-slightly sexy sex scenes. With Chastened, on the other hand, you get what it says on the cover: no Sex in the City.”
18/07/2009
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