The Average American Male - My First Book Review

I'll preface this blog by saying I haven't been an avid reader since I left the Army in 2004. So, although I won't be getting a job writing reviews for The New York Times Best Seller List anytime soon, I don't consider myself a novice reader and I'm certainly never shy about sharing my opinion.

The author, Chad Kultgen, is a 20-something male who is running through what seems to be the mundane routine of most postgraduate students. Running through the tail end of his 18 month relationship he finds himself jerking off 3-7 times a day, seemingly to fulfill the void of sex in his life. Most of his thoughts and subsequent actions seem to be geared towards sex, women and porn.

His frustration comes to a boiling point when he finds himself engaged to a woman he can no longer stand to be around and has no feelings for. He breaks off the engagement abruptly and sends his new ex into a spiraling psychotic rage. With no need for recovery he quickly jumps into a very sexually charged relationship.

The new girl is everything he's been craving for the last 12 months. Although his mind still seems to be constantly wrapped around sex, he seems to finally be getting the quality and quantity he desired. So much so, that he has fallen in love and can entertain the idea of marriage without wanting to ram his car into a tree at a high rate of speed.

Things finally seem right when the first signs of trouble appear. Blow jobs become fewer and far between. Nights once filled with living out fantasies and mind blowing sex are quickly replaced by him jerking off in the bathroom while she sleeps. (This is what I've come to know as the typical sexual progression of any relationship.) Although disturbed by this change, he seems to have matured a little over the 18 month timespan of the current relationship and decides to push through. After an epiphany in bed one sexless night, he realizes that any relationship he gets into will ultimately end up on this same plane. He gives in, like so many of us have before, and asks her to marry him. Thus, accepting that he has now relinquished control to her for what is sure to seem like an eternity.

The ending is much more mundane than I would've expected, given the extreme nature of the rest of the book. It will most certainly not win a pulitzer prize. It's very sexually explicit. (I've seen softer descriptions of sex in smut magazines.) He refers to most women in here as cunts, bitches or whores. His only general use for women seems to be for sexual entertainment and if they show no promise of that, then, subsequently he has little or no use for them. I can't say that I agree with his gross disrespect but at a much less extreme level I think most men who've been in any type of long term relationship will find a way to relate to his frustration.