… I recently bought Dawn Eden’s The Thrill of the Chaste and read it anyway. This is, of course, Ms. Eden’s frank memoir/manifesto about how she, a rock journalist, moved from promiscuity to chastity. One review is here. An interview with Ms. Eden is here.
It’s not a book that is aimed at contented married thirtysomething mothers-of-three-small-children, who need the book neither for advice to get us to rethink the Sex-and-the-City lifestyle nor to leave prominently around for a nearly-grown daughter to stumble upon. And I should add that the writing style isn’t exactly my cup of tea. Some of her more critical reviewers have suggested she overgeneralizes her own experience, and I think there’s a grain of truth to that.
I really enjoyed it anyway, or at least I found it thought provoking.
More of it struck home than you might imagine. It wasn’t that long ago that I was dating, and struggling with many of the same illusions and tensions, and some of the same mistakes, that Ms. Eden describes in her book. A great many of those ghosts stuck around, well into the relationship that eventually became my marriage. A few years later, both of us are more mature, and better people, and we often look at each other and think we are so lucky. Not because we didn’t screw up from time to time, but because our screwing up didn’t ruin us. Somehow we made it through to the other side and we can’t explain why.
Anyway, whatever your state and vocation, you may find that Dawn’s book is a keeper. Check it out.
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