Sex: Real People Talk about What They Really Do Book

Twelve-year old Amos Hartigan has yet to kiss a girl. Judith Rothstein, age fifty-seven, has slept with nearly a thousand men. Bisexual Jackie Dunhill finds liberation through S/M. Protestant minister Eli Gregory has been married and faithful for forty years.

Simply, nonjudgementally, explicitly, Harry Maurer and fifty-five people he interviewed reveal what sex is all about - and a hint of what it could be. Maurer lets his interviewees speak for themselves - teenagers and septuagenarians, singles and marrieds, upper crust and working class, urban and rural, straight, gay, lesbian and bisexual, Anglos and minorities, cellbates, sex workers and sex addicts, the unadventurous and those who travel sex's "blue highways." In vivid, quirky language these ordinary people describe sex that can be sweet, warm, and lyrical or raunchy, rough, and bizarre, and their physical and emotional sensations are full of surprises - not least of all to themselves.

In Sex, Maurer and 55 people he interviewed talk simply, non-judgmentally and explicitly about sex. After introductory comments about the state of sex in America, Maurer lets his interviewees speak for themselves--teenagers, septuagenarians, singles, marrieds, straight, gay and lesbian. The result is an original, definitive portrait of Americans--as sexual beings.