The Book of Sodom

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating views of Sodom from antiquity to the present.
Review: This is an absorbing, well-written book that should appeal to anyone who wants a full understanding of Sodom in all of its manifestations, from antiquity to the present. Organized into three sections, the first section, "Sodom: A Circuit-Walk," is autobiographical and deserves the highest praise for the frankness and thoughtfulness of its expression. The anthology section, which follows, is of generally high interest, covering as it does incidents, accounts, and attitudes of many different historical eras. All of the excerpts are instructive in one way or another and always interesting. Some are appalling, some quite moving, others hysterical in tone and occasionally horrifying, as in the Marquis de Sade excerpt from "The One Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom." The last section, "Sodom: Looking Back," was too brief and left me begging for more. Let us hope the author will take up where he left off in a sequel to this book, which I consider a landmark effort in understanding Sodom and its affects on social mores and sexual attitudes down through the centuries.