Isensee, Rik. Love Between Men: Enhancing Intimacy and
Keeping your Relationship Alive. Prentice Hall Pr. 1990.
c195p. index. LC 89-16253. ISBN 0-13-540544-0. $18.95
[PSYCHOLOGY]
While heterosexual couples have broadly based support
systems in mainstream society, male couples do not. Isensee
explores gay male relationships by examining the difficulty of
maintaining successful male-male bondings in a hostile,
homophobic scoiety. He discusses problems unique to homosexual
relationships--gay parenting, monogamy versus open relationships,
AIDS, and coming out to one's own family, as well as dealing with
"inlaws." Isensee uses dialog between lovers in
realistic situations as a way to aid the reader in initiating
communication with his partner when the going gets tough. All in
all, this is a helpful book. Additional books of interest on this
subject include Betty Berzon's Permanent Partners: Building
Gay and Lesbian Relationships That Last (LJ
11/15/88) and Eric Marcus's The Male Couples Guide to Living
Together (LJ 3/1/88). Large public libraries should
have all three.
Kevin M. Roddy, Oakland Public Library, California