The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Is Sex Necessary?: Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do? by James Thurber and E.B. White
Sally E. Perry

James Thurber and E. B. White. Is Sex Necessary?: Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do. Common Reader/Akadine, 1998. 190 pp. Paper: $11.95.

Is Sex Necessary?, despite its seemingly salacious title, is a cheerful little book. The question that Thurber and White pose to their readers is one that modern man—and I do mean man—often ponders, or at least the modern man of 1929, when Is Sex Necessary? was originally written. The current reprint provides a keyhole on an era when the writings of Sigmund Freud were becoming the stuff of dinner table conversation and casting a whole new and not totally welcome light on the relationship between the sexes.
This new edition, with line drawings by Thurber and an introduction written by White in 1950, is partly a parody of popular scientific writings and partly a humorous look at love and marriage. The book is written for the confused male of the time, who is confounded by modern women and how he is expected to relate to them, given what scientists and psychoanalysts say. The chapters include “The Nature of the American Male,” “How to Tell Love from Passion,” “The Sexual Revolution: Being a Rather Complete Survey of the Entire Sexual Scene,” and “What Should Children Tell Parents?”
The males of the book are described as ordinary guys who would like to do the right thing in regard to women, but have absolutely no idea what that is. Tips are given on relationships, including the sage advice that, in writing a letter to a woman, if “you don’t care what punctuation mark you put after ‘darling,’ the chances are you are in love—although you may just be uneducated, who knows?”
Although some of the humor is dated, one can see the connections to current humorists like Dave Barry and Garrison Keillor, who often seem to be confused by the world around them. Is Sex Necessary? is an amusing look back at what was then called “the battle of the sexes.” This edition is one of a number of wonderful but often neglected books that Common Reader has brought back into print. [Sally E. Parry]


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction Is Sex Necessary?: Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do? by James Thurber and E.B. White Sally E. Perry James Thurber and E. B. White. Is Sex Necessary?: Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do. Common Reader/Akadine, 1998. 190 pp. Paper: $11.95. Is Sex Necessary?, despite its seemingly salacious title, is a cheerful little book. The question that Thurber and White pose to their readers is one that modern man—and I do mean man—often ponders, or at least the modern man of 1929, when Is Sex Necessary? was originally written. The current reprint provides a keyhole on an era when the writings of Sigmund Freud were becoming the stuff of dinner table conversation and casting a whole new and not totally welcome light on the relationship between the sexes. This new edition, with line drawings by Thurber and an introduction written by White in 1950, is partly a parody of popular scientific writings and partly a humorous look at love and marriage. The book is written for the confused male of the time, who is confounded by modern women and how he is expected to relate to them, given what scientists and psychoanalysts say. The chapters include “The Nature of the American Male,” “How to Tell Love from Passion,” “The Sexual Revolution: Being a Rather Complete Survey of the Entire Sexual Scene,” and “What Should Children Tell Parents?” The males of the book are described as ordinary guys who would like to do the right thing in regard to women, but have absolutely no idea what that is. Tips are given on relationships, including the sage advice that, in writing a letter to a woman, if “you don’t care what punctuation mark you put after ‘darling,’ the chances are you are in love—although you may just be uneducated, who knows?” Although some of the humor is dated, one can see the connections to current humorists like Dave Barry and Garrison Keillor, who often seem to be confused by the world around them. Is Sex Necessary? is an amusing look back at what was then called “the battle of the sexes.” This edition is one of a number of wonderful but often neglected books that Common Reader has brought back into print. [Sally E. Parry]

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