The history of sex in the US. Talese is an extraordinarily talented writer. He made a book full of facts, names, places, and court cases read like a well crafted novel.

I learned much about the interwoven histories of people, religions, and political movements, aspects of which I've never seen covered elsewhere, that ties them to current events and contemporary themes.

Talese has an extensive vocabulary that never seems strained or pretentious. I was frequently looking up and learning new words.

Recommended.

Excellent book that in many respects feels timeless. The last 100 pages of Hefner and Talese himself though, were rather uninteresting and brought my rating down from a 5 star read. Solid 4 star book!

Fascinating when I read it as a precocious nerdy teen with absolutely no point of reference; hits as hard but completely different as a wizened 56 year old divorced lawyer. Hard to quantify as a read, but the author Gay Talese is the real deal. Brilliant.

Occasionally engaging, occasionally sleazy, and occasionally just boring. When he's at his best, Talese is a fine journalist, digging deep and dredging up mile-long backstories about even the most minor characters who play roles of consequence. When he's not so hot, however, he plays to sensationalism, writes like a dimestore paperback scribbler, and slops on far too much prurient detail than necessary. Still, he kept me interested enough to bother winding my way through all 600 pages. All in all, a book worth reading for those interested in the minutia of the place of (almost entirely heterosexual) sex in American culture before the mid-70s, told from a distinctly masculine vantage point, but probably best to avoid if that subject doesn't immediately pique your interest. This could have been massively more interesting if it had included stories of the development of queer people's sexualities, though given Talese's writing style another character or two-- let alone those outside the realm of normative sexuality --would probably have tacked another thousand pages onto the book.

This is a really interesting, sprawling kind of book. I like the idea that it's kind of a social history of the sexual revolution, its antecedents and its aftermath, though I don't think that's quite it. Instead, it feels like there are two stories that are less widely regarded, the rise of pornography and the sh0rt-lived heyday of swinging communities. And while both of them are tied to the sexual revolution, they feel a lot more like secondary effects than they do drivers.

This doesn't diminish the interest in Talese's reporting, which is remarkable, and kept me flipping back to the note at the start, that :the names of the people in this book are real, and the scenes and events described on the following pages actually happened." The story of the Bullaros and Sandstone was pretty amazing, as are other elements of this story. I felt a little uncomfortable with the Hefner stuff, because he just rubs me the wrong way and especially the story of his early experiences felt too uncritical, but what do I know. It does pay off, more or less, in later scenes involving Hefner. But the whole is maybe less than its parts, as the stuff Talese writes about felt, in the end, downstream from the drivers of what he was talking about. Talking to second wave feminists and the makers of the Pill would have meant a very different book, and other people have written it; I'm just not sure that the aims of this book quite accord with its contents.

The writing throughout is really impressive-- thoughtful and engaging. The introduction of the writer at the end is masterfully done, and the very last scene of the book is wonderfully lyric.

Where do I begin with Gay Talese? For me, this was nothing short of a masterpiece.

Talese is more than just a terrific writer and if you haven't read any of his journalistic pieces and/or essays, I urge you to search on the internet and read him first. He is magical. Precise in his word, which are both simple and complex at the same time.

Thy Neighbor's Wife is a history of the American sexual revolution. It is an in depth study in morality and prurience as well as the tale of the porn industry. Yet in no way is this book sleazy or vulgar. Rather it is an educational thesis on how sexual freedom and liberation came into being in the USA.

Through it you are introduced to several characters – be it the eternal Playboy Hugh Hefner or the moral and upright Charles Keating. Talese does not preach nor does he openly take any one side. In fact, his observation is impartial as well as entertaining. You are definitely left wanting for more.

If you love reading non-fiction and are rarely shocked by controversial subject matter, do give this a try.

串連素材的方式流暢且自然，非虛構寫作的優秀作品。

better than it needed to be or than i expected it to be, but should really be titled “thy neighbor’s husband” tbh

Based on the title, I expected this book to be about adultery. I wouldn't say that is accurate at all. A fascinating look at the ongoing struggle between puritans and censors, and those who want free literary and sexual expression. We all know about the sexual liberation of the 60s, and the book is largely about that period. I did not know about the struggle for freedom going back to the early 1800s, at least - and often sponsored by religious renegades. Nor did I accurately recall the repressive boomerang of the Nixon years, and that actually gave me hope in this dark time.

But mainly, and critically, the freedom of speech we take for granted today has not existed since the Bill of Rights. Our fellow citizens have fought for our freedom of expression over the intervening centuries, tooth and claw, at personal expense including imprisonment. We can't afford to continue to take it for granted.