Rating: 
Summary: A wonderfully detailed memoir of an active sex life.
Review: Catherine Millet has written a thoughtful memoir of her sexual activities with many people over an indeterminate amount of time.
Predominately she is descriptive of her activities, her partners, and her thoughts and physical feelings. There are no dialogs or regrets, just a straightforward presentation. The book contains a lot of graphic description of sexual acts that may shock some readers. The author does go into quite a bit of abstract intellectual thought about meanings. This can either enhance or distract from the flow of the narrative.Unlike My Life And Loves by Frank Harris, this book is not a chronological journal. It is arranged into four chapters called Numbers, Space, Confined Space, and Details. In "Numbers" Millet talks about her fondness for many physical relationships. Although she has sexual friendships and lovers, most of her encounters are with anonymous partners. "Space" is a chapter devoted to her joy in making love outdoors. "Confined Space," on the other hand, describes her need to find privacy with her lovers in stairwells, alleys, storerooms, etc. The small intimate facts and observations on lovemaking are saved for the last chapter, "Details." What I find most interesting is how little else there is in the book to provide background or setting. Only a few locations and the first names of a few men are given. Never are dates provided which gives the work a timelessness like an erotic adult fairy tale. I found out through other sources that the author was born in 1948, and has been in a monogamous marriage for over ten years. I
needed that much of a setting to make some sense of this work. With the current fear of AIDS and herpes, I found it difficult to imagine a person today engaging so freely in the activities described in this book, and began to think of it as an extremely well-detailed fantasy. However, when I realized that the setting for most of the material was probably the Sexual Revolution of the late 1960s and the 1970s, then I saw this book as the report of an adventurous explorer giving a meticulous account of that time and its unique morality as it worked itself out in her own life.
Rating: 
Summary: Prepare to hit the "Snore" button
Review: Many great authors in history have described the joys, pains, and amusement of certain culinary delights, from grand discussions of the skills of master chefs to the discomfort caused by atrocious cuisine, producing beautiful and poignant linguistical treats for their readers. Then there are authors who have written, "I went to Burger World, had the large fries, the guy behind the cash register scratched his nose, I couldn't believe the girl in the next line was wearing that shade of nail polish in public, etc"... Catherine M. falls into the second category...I'm no prude, and nothing that she has done is particularly shocking. If you don't believe me, talk to any vice cop in a major US city about prostitution and crack cocaine (same body count, but cash is exchanged). In the hands of another author the material might have actually been interesting, but Cathy seems determined to reduce every sexual experience to the lowest common (and boring) denominator...the book just drags and drags and drags and drags...everything that has been said in previous reviews is correct. Sex in this book is about as exciting as filling out tax forms. One final note...anyone who has ever worked at a REAL magazine as an editor, under the pressure to meet deadlines, deal with recalcitrant authors, proofs, reviews, etc., will have a difficult time recognizing the atmosphere at the PlayLand magazine that employs Cathy. Cathy apparently has unbelievable amounts of free time to play, play, and play some more, uncomplicated by work expectations. Wish I could find a job that lucrative and undemanding.
Rating:
Summary: Numbingly dreary
Review: Millet's sexual life is just a rambling catalogue of sexual acts. She is fooling herself if she thinks she is revolutionary or shocking. She obviously believes in quantity over quality and sex to her is all about the act rather than the emotion. Maybe something is lost in translation. There is nothing interesting about any of the encounters, no humor even, just a rather depressing account. It reads like a rather gory medical experiment. Yes, it is an accurate title but if you want some good erotica, try "The Butcher"
Rating:
Summary: The BORING Life of Catherine M.
Review: This book was so monotonous I couldnt even finish it. So what, she let a lot of guys f*** her, you can go to your local swingers club and see that. ZZZZZZZZZZZ, put me to sleep. Clara Bow's sexual life was much more detailed, wild, riske',and in some cases criminal, in short actually worth writing about.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy it.
Review: I quit reading at fifty pages. I was bored. She blips from one story to the next and none of it has a point. It's about how much sex she's had and how great all of her partners thought she was. Whoop-de-doo.
Rating: 
Summary: The Exceptionally Dull Sexual Life of Catherine M
Review: I read this entire book over the course of a transatlantic airline flight. From cover to cover, with interuptions in order to choose between "chicken or beef" and watch The Hulk two times running. If I said I'd bought it to be titillated, I'd probably be missing the point. Which is a good job, really, because I found it about as erotic as an episode of Antiques Roadshow. If I said I'd bought it for it's literary merits, and the enthusiastic praise on the back of the book, I'd be closer to the mark. The promised sex was just a bonus. But, sadly, I was disappointed on both counts. This is a book detailing, in explicit, but not remotely arousing detail, the prodigious sexual exploits of Catherine Millet. From the first time she had group sex, not long after she lost her virginity, to anonymous orgies in carparks in Bois de Boulogne, all of the details are written down in cold, clinical detail which makes them about as erotic as a pathology report. Catherine M is thusly hailed as a pioneer, breaking apart gender stereotypes. She makes it very clear throughout the book that she's in the driving seat of her sexual life. Saying that, however, I really disagree with this idea. One of the most obvious things one notices reading the book is the cold, clinical nature of Catherine's adventures. She really doesn't seem to gain any pleasure from any of these adventures. The results of her promiscuity, such as an STD and, later, an abortion, are described in throwaway detail as if they were as mundane an event as brushing her teeth. I'm not sure if this is because of lacklustre translation (I wouldn't mind getting a copy of the original next time I'm in Paris)or simply because Catherine M is a cold, clinical woman. If that's the case, one has to ask why she'd go through all of these adventures if she appears to receive so little pleasure from them. She's not proud of her liberated sexuality, nor is she ashamed of it. Sex is described as something she submits herself to for no apparent reason. A real, liberated woman would surely be in charge of her sexuality for her own reasons of enjoyment and empowerment, instead of a sort of volontary submissive, as Catherine seems to be. Or, perhaps, I am simply not getting the whole idea of the book. If so, please let me know!
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money and time!
Review: I was so bored that I couldn't be bothered to read more than one third of this book. I expected much more - liberating female writing, passion, pleasure. I couldn't find even a grain of passion or pleasure in C Millet's writing, just a list of very boring descriptions of sexual activities. Even the worst pornography is much more interesting! CM describes happenings as if she was not involved at all, as if everything happened without her consent, as if she is mentally retarded...
Lousy!
I rate this book with O stars, or with five dead bats, it's so boring!
Rating:
Summary: One of my Favorite Books Ever- Awe inspiring
Review: I can't believe how low the other readers here have rated this book. i love this book. it is a real page-turner. (...) this is a book i would give to all my friends. it is original, personal, highly interesting, and well written. the other people who have negatively reviewed this book sound like repressed killjoys incapable of reading a tale by a woman who likes to enjoy herself!
Rating:
Summary: Do something else with your time
Review: I was very disappointed by this book. It lacks inspiration or any sort of structure or organization. It sounds more like fever-induced random ramblings which often refer to orgies. Like other reviews note, there is nothing new, funny, interesting, artistic, or exciting in this book. I would not qualify it as erotica or pornography. It is simply extremely dull repetitive writing about one woman's sex life. I am amazed this book was even published.
Rating:
Summary: I don't see why she wrote this at all
Review: In the afterword, which I flipped to after about the first chapter, Catherine M attempts to answer the question, "Why would you want to write a book about this?"
She doesn't do this to my satisfaction. The book is full of sex scenes with perfect strangers, where she comments on the pleasure of certain positions and how good a well proportioned male member looks and tastes. She describes this with disgusting detail like she is describing a kind of culinary masterpiece. The majority of these males are perfect strangers that she allows to use her. Throughout the book, she does not attempt to explain why she does this, but only offers up the weak excuse that it is fun. She does not seem to have learned anything from her behavior, and instead takes pride in it.I don't know if she is expecting admiration for her boldness with this book, or if she is just flaunting this in the face of the world, but she is honestly disturbing, and eerily sure of herself.
Apparently, things like therapy and AIDS don't exist in her world.
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