The Neighbor's Wife

Name: The Neighbor's Wife
ISBN: 9787208146594

盖伊·特立斯 / 木风 / 许诺Shanghai People's Publishing House · ChinaSep 2018

4.3

Word count: 326K words
Chapters: 31
ISBN: 9787208146594

Report an error Find this book

Summary

With its unflinching depiction of American sexual behavior and fetishes, Thy Neighbor's Wife shocked American society. With astonishing journalistic courage and craft, Talese shows us a new world built on a new moral foundation, leading us through the Playboy mansion, the Supreme Court, and the backrooms and hotbeds of massage parlors, revealing the rise of the porn industry and group-sex culture, the corresponding legal efforts to combat obscenity, and the sexual psychology and attitudes of ordinary people. Though its subject touches on the below-the-belt, Talese's approach is never flippant; this book fundamentally changed the way Americans see themselves.

Editor's review

Gay Talese's Thy Neighbor's Wife is a landmark work of nonfiction. With a cool, meticulous hand, the author probes the complex struggle in mid-to-late twentieth-century American society between sexual mores, marital ethics, and personal freedom. Talese spent nearly a decade on immersive research, interviewing everyone from ordinary couples to people in the pornography industry and even participating in some of the scenes himself, presenting a panorama of a society in transformation in the manner of anthropological fieldwork. The book's value goes far beyond a discussion of sex; it is a profound record of desire, loneliness, moral boundaries, and social discipline. Eschewing simple moral judgment, Talese uses the true stories of countless individuals to show human nature struggling and compromising between desire and restraint. His literary narrative lifts journalism to the level of social history, letting readers glimpse a era's collective psychological shifts through concrete details of daily life. For readers seeking to understand the cultural roots of modern American society or interested in the art of nonfiction writing, this book offers an irreplaceable reading experience.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in American social and cultural history and changing sexual mores
Readers who appreciate in-depth nonfiction and literary reportage
Those working in sociology, anthropology, or gender studies
Readers who enjoy seeing grand historical contexts through specific personal stories

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking titillation or sensory thrills
Readers who prefer fast-paced, plot-driven fiction

Reading tips

Read it as a work of social observation rather than a gossipy story, and pay attention to how narrative structure connects with characters' fates.
Combine it with historical background on the American counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s for a fuller understanding.
As you read, consider the choices and dilemmas of the characters and compare them with the present for reflection.

About the publisher

Shanghai People's Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

Shanghai People's Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher whose list focuses on academic monographs and general-interest titles in philosophy, social sciences, politics and law, economics and management, and history. Among its books are Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties History in the Chinese Dynastic History series; The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy in foreign literature; the Wenjing Classical Translation Illustrated Edition of The Complete Greek Tragedies of Euripides; and works of social theory such as Max Weber's Economy and Society and Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. Its authors include Wang Zhongluo, J.R.R. Tolkien, Luo Niansheng, and Zhou Zuoren.

版权信息
出版说明
前言
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
后记
人物地点近况更新
译后记

FAQ

Is the book's content too explicit or sensitive?

The book treats its subject with serious sociological seriousness; the narration is cool and restrained, aiming to reveal phenomena and social structures rather than titillate with details. Its focus is the interaction between ideas and society.

Do I need to know American history to understand it?

Basic knowledge of twentieth-century American society helps deepen understanding, but the author builds the story through individual lives, so even without detailed historical knowledge readers can grasp the core human and social conflicts.

How does this book differ from the author's other major work, The Kingdom and the Power?

Both are models of nonfiction, but they focus on different subjects. The Kingdom and the Power looks at the city and the famous, while Thy Neighbor's Wife delves into more private realms of social ideas; the latter has a stronger flavor of anthropological participant observation.

Related on WeRead

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

盖伊·特立斯 Author

Guy Talese is an American writer known for his nonfiction, with five of his works included in our catalog. He is noted for bringing novelistic techniques into documentary reporting, using long observation and detailed interviews to turn social issues into character-driven stories with narrative tension. His representative works include The Kingdom and the Power: Behind the Scenes at The New York Times, about the newspaper's internal operations and power structure; The Overlooked and the Forgotten, which focuses on overlooked ordinary people and marginal occupations in the city; and Thy Neighbor's Wife, which deals with changing attitudes toward marriage and sexuality in American social life. His works are often classified under social culture, foreign literature, and documentary literature, and have had a lasting influence on Chinese readers' nonfiction reading. Public information is limited, so his full biography and awards are omitted here.

木风 Author

Mu Feng is an author about whom limited public information is available, with three works currently included in the library. Judging from the range of subjects, the writing spans social culture, documentary literature, and modern romance, showing considerable versatility across genres. Among the representative works, the non-fiction classic collection featuring The Kingdom and the Power, The Overlooked and the Forgotten, and Thy Neighbor's Wife, along with Thy Neighbor's Wife, belongs to the non-fiction and documentary direction and touches on social and cultural issues, while Blood-Colored Peach Blossoms: A Girl's Awakening and Redemption After Trauma leans toward an emotional coming-of-age narrative. Because details such as birth and death dates, nationality, and English name remain unconfirmed, the author's personal background cannot be described in detail. The existing works nonetheless suggest an attention to how individuals navigate society and trauma, with subject matter that combines real-world concern and emotional depth, suitable for readers interested in social culture and stories of emotional growth.

许诺 Author

Xu Nuo is an author about whom little public information is available. Three works under this name are held in the collection, spanning social culture, documentary literature, and applied psychology. Among them, a work connected to a collection of classic nonfiction by Gay Talese indicates an interest in introducing and engaging with the Western documentary writing tradition; Neighbors' Wives likewise belongs to this nonfiction vein. The Art of Reading People turns toward applied psychology, aimed at everyday interpersonal judgment. Judging from the available works, Xu Nuo's writing centers on social observation and character analysis, balancing translated or introduced material with practical guidance. Since nationality, dates of birth and death, English name, and personal history are all unknown, this profile makes no speculation and outlines the author's writing only on the basis of the works held in the collection; further biographical information awaits public disclosure.