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Book Summary and Reviews of The Golden Condom by Jeanne Safer

The Golden Condom by Jeanne Safer

The Golden Condom

And Other Essays on Love Lost and Found

by Jeanne Safer

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Apr 2016, 288 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Psychoanalyst Dr. Jeanne Safer reviews the different facets of love through entertaining and informative stories and case studies.

Dr. Jeanne Safer has dedicated much of her decades' long career in psychotherapy to exploring taboo subjects that we all think about in private but seldom discuss in public. From conflicted sibling relationships to the choice not to have children, Safer's work has always been unflinching in its aim to dive deep into topics that make most of us blush, but which are present in all of our lives. In The Golden Condom, Safer turns her sharp and fearless eye to a subject perhaps more universal than any other - love in all its permutations.

In The Golden Condom Safer interweaves her own experiences with those of a variety of memorable people, including her patients, telling a series of tales that investigate relationships - both healthy and toxic - that most of us don't escape life without experiencing at least once, including traumatic friendships, love after loss, unrequited or obsessional love and more. Never prescriptive and always entertaining, these stories will demolish any suspicion you might have that you're alone in navigating a turbulent romantic life, and will inspire you with the range of possibilities that exist to find love, however unconventional, and at any age.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. For anyone dealing with the intense pain caused by unrequited love, false friendships, or romantic obsessions, this book offers comfort and solid coping strategies." - Publishers Weekly

"A highly relatable collection of anecdotes that serves as a valuable crash course on the pitfalls, seductions, and rewards of love." - Kirkus

"Jeanne Safer is like a best friend, a gifted therapist and an enchanting storyteller rolled into one ... This book is both a warm fuzzy and a sharp kick in the pants. Don't let it far from your side." - Meghan Daum, author of The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion

"[Jeanne Safer] is honest, smart, brave, funny, and makes you thing about things you don't think about." - Peggy Noonan

This information about The Golden Condom was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Jeanne Safer

Jeanne Safer, PhD, is an author and American psychotherapist. She has written articles for The Wall Street Journal, Utne Reader, Self, New Woman, and other publications. Safer lives in Manhattan with her husband, Richard Brookhiser, a journalist and historian. They also have a home in Ulster County in the Catskills.

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