This Too Is Love: Twelve Stories (book)

This Too Is Love: Twelve Stories is a book by Jay Edson.

• (Cover available here: http://uryourstory.org/images/photos-gen/TTIL.jpg )
• Paperback: 169 pages
• Publisher: Last Farthing Publications; 2nd edition (August 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0578040646
• ISBN-13: 978-0578040646

Publisher's description (from Amazon.com

"For all the current preoccupation about pedophiles, it is curious how little interest there seems to be with regard to what one is actually like. The author's intimate knowledge of one such individual should prove a useful window for the professional or the questioning layman who needs to look beyond stereotypical pejoratives. Though the work is fiction, it draws its inspiration from the experiences of a real person. Each of the 13 stories that comprise the book is complete in itself, but the stories share a common protagonist that can be seen as a series of snapshots taken at various points in his life. The central character is a psychotherapist by training. The stories are quite different stylistically, and focus on different aspects of his experience. They are intended neither to condone nor to condemn, but rather to understand. They ask a question. What is it like to be such a man?

Customer reviews (Amazon.com

4.0 out of 5 stars

• short stories of boy patients thru a doctor' eyes

By S. Alteron January 23, 2013

stories that deal with boy patients, who are consider to be different than normal kids, lonely and more introverted. they may act out thru play, with some sexual undertones. all are looking for love and understanding.

3.0 out of 5 stars

• (See "Marcus and Me" review. Same author.)
• By Mr. Bon July 6, 2012

Jay Edson has gone through considerable effort to explore inter-generational relationships, including sexual ones. These short stories, also, explore boundary issues between therapist-client. Some include sexual contact. See Marcus and Me review for more complete discussion.

And then, of course, the obligatory review from a woman who drank the Kool-Aid (including all of the worn-out clichés: "pedophiles suffer from narcissism," "they like boys only for the sex, then throw them away," "boys are not interested in sexual relationships with adults," etc. etc.)

3.0 out of 5 stars

• So many questions...

By Tomboyon February 11, 2014

This book claims to offer insight into pedophilia. I assume the author is a real life homosexual pedophile, and I'm curious what goes through his mind (aren't you?).

While reading this book, I can't help but feel that this is basically just a collection of erotic stories intended for men who are sexually attracted to boys, as it is mostly explicit in content and does very little to answer the many questions I have about pedophilia.

The author sees himself as a mentor of young boys. I personally found this outlook a little arrogant, maybe because as a young girl I simply hated anyone who believed they had something to teach me. If I believed they had something to teach me, fair enough, but how narcissistic for them to believe that they were wise enough to be teaching others... A child should pick their own mentors, no adult should assume themselves to be one.

I'm a mother, and this book raised many more questions than it answered:

The author is clearly attracted to young boys, but does this mean that once they grow up they need to be replaced? If you love someone, they shouldn't automatically have to be replaced when they grow up and they're no longer sexually attractive to you.

The author seems to believe that love is mostly sexual in nature, and seems to be more in favour of a string of sexual flings with boys rather than a lifelong romance with one. This begs the question: Where are these young boys meant to come from? Would the author be happy for his own young sons to engage in sexual relations with other men? "Hi Dad, this is Roger, my cricket coach, we're going to my room to have sex now"?

The author seems to feel that he is providing love to these children, but it's a parents' job to shower their child with love and affection, not his, and I certainly wouldn't want to closely share my child with any outside adult. For a book titled This too is love, it seemed the lust came first, the love second.

If children find they have sexual desires, I think they should explore them on their own, in private.

I don't know, maybe some rare, young, very mature boys would enjoy the attention an adult obsessing over them could give them -especially if their neglectful parents didn't give it to them. Human sexuality is a weird, weird thing, and I can accept these things might happen rarely, and, God forbid, might actually be consensual. But we already live in a oversexed world, and bringing more sex into children's lives is just going to be harmful to the vast majority. Boys simply just don't need to have sexual contact. There's no benefit to it. All it does it risk STDs. They will have sex as teenagers. It's just completely unnecessary in a child's life.

If some men have pedophile fantasies, who cares, fantasy isn't a crime. If they want to write erotic books, which is basically what this is, good for them. As long as it's kept in fantasy, no harm.

The book is well written, just not to my taste.

See also

(to be added)

External links

• Available at Amazon.com as paperback or Kindle edition:

http://www.amazon.com/This-Too-Love-Twelve-Stories/dp/0578040646/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462758297&sr=8-1

• Will be made available here to download.

Watch this space!