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lauralark 's review for:
The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex
by Melissa Febos
challenging
reflective
After the end of a difficult relationship and a period of continuously picking the wrong people to date, serial monogamist Melissa Febos decides to take a break from dating and sex. In so doing, she discovers more than she thought was possible about love, herself, and the way that our drive to be desired affects what we think we want. What does it mean to be partnered, and why do we pursue it? When we project our feelings and desires onto another person, how does that hurt them, and how does it affect our own capacity to love and love ourselves? What does it mean to live a fulfilling life?
Even though Febos’ journey is driven by a history and choices that are very particular to her, and which I don’t necessarily relate to, I couldn’t help but feel like this book was written specifically for me. Reading this book felt like a mixture of meditation, therapy, and a long heart-to-heart with a good friend; it pushed me to examine myself and my own relationship to love and solitude. Ever since I started The Dry Season, I’ve been talking about it and recommending it to everyone who will listen to me, and I don’t yet know whether that’s because I think everyone should read it or because I am simply that obsessed; it very well might be both. I don’t know when I’ve read a memoir as insightful as this one, and I am so grateful to Febos for writing it and sharing it. Her exploration of art, pleasure, and freedom is a manifesto for anyone interested in living the life they want, whether single or in a relationship.
Even though Febos’ journey is driven by a history and choices that are very particular to her, and which I don’t necessarily relate to, I couldn’t help but feel like this book was written specifically for me. Reading this book felt like a mixture of meditation, therapy, and a long heart-to-heart with a good friend; it pushed me to examine myself and my own relationship to love and solitude. Ever since I started The Dry Season, I’ve been talking about it and recommending it to everyone who will listen to me, and I don’t yet know whether that’s because I think everyone should read it or because I am simply that obsessed; it very well might be both. I don’t know when I’ve read a memoir as insightful as this one, and I am so grateful to Febos for writing it and sharing it. Her exploration of art, pleasure, and freedom is a manifesto for anyone interested in living the life they want, whether single or in a relationship.