About Love

Rating:
Summary: A genuine masterpiece.
Review: About Love is a welcome burst of genius on the topicmost in need and deserving of it. "Relationship"books are a category where sloppy reasoning abounds and where simple selfishness is often offered as a legitimate approach to meaningful intimacy. This book however, is a genuine masterpiece. More than any other writer on this topic, and more than most writers on any topic, Mr. Solomon enters the big issues and emerges with, in my opinion, the Truth. About Love is about, as it must be, people, history, intimacy, respect, loyalty and fulfillment. In short, it is about the things which matter most and the things which form the raw materials of romantic love and meaningful relationships. This is not a book which can be properly digested in one pass. Rather, it offers the more intense satisfaction of new and interesting insights from repeated readings. It is best digested a little at a time and held up as a lens through which to view one's personal landscape. A degree of dedication is required (just like love itself) as early portions of the book review the history of romantic love in a rather scholastic and philosophical light. Little by little however, the insights build upon each other and become more personal, leading to compelling insights and philosophies on all the big issues of love including love at first sight, romantic tension, loyalty, and making love last. Sprinkled throughout is also a series of inspired quotations: Lauren Bacall's observation on the importance of fidelity is worth the price of admission in itself. In the years since I was fortunate enought to stumble upon this book, I have not read or heard reasoning on the topic of romantic love or human relations which equals that found in its pages. Overall, it is the finest book I have ever read, and for the motivated reader, I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: amazing work
Review: I don't understand why this book never got "big". It is so comprehensive, with all its references to history and cultures and even mythology, and so balanced and insightful. I read this book over ten years ago and just recently pulled it out to reread the many parts I had highlighted. That's a rare thing. I wish more people knew about it. For anyone who is fascinated in analyzing and thinking about what love is, it's a very important piece of work that really makes you think and see things differently. Though the author is not offering his insights as facts, just the fact that they are offered opens up new doors from which to view love in your life and in general. One of my favorite works of non-fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Best book on the subject
Review: This is the most insightful book on the topic of love that there is. After my divorce 10 years ago, I did what a lot of people do and read a lot of so-called "self-help" books. This is not a self-help book but it does provide a very down-to-earth discussion of what real love between two mature adults really is all about. Love is complex and one of the neat things about this book is that the author defines love in many different ways. The primary insight here is that ideally romantic love is not an obsession, not idealistic, and it involves re-defining oneself as a part of a couple. This is perhaps why so many people who are over 40 and are unattached find it hard to become part of a couple. But the book also holds out hope for love that is permanent and lasting and grows deeper with time.