The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships

by Neil Strauss Narrated by Neil Strauss, Ione Skye, Jessica Sattelberger, Justin Gunn, Adele Jacques, Mem Kennedy, Carola Madis, Leah Cevoli, John Runnette

Overview

From the author of the blockbuster bestseller The Game: A shockingly personal, surprisingly relatable, brutally honest memoir, in which the celebrated dating expert confronts the greatest challenge he has ever faced: monogamy and fidelity.

Neil Strauss became famous to millions around the world as the author of The Game, a funny and slyly instructive account of how he transformed himself from a scrawny, insecure nerd into the ultra-confident, ultra-successful “pickup artist” known as Style. The book jump-started the international “seduction community,” and made Strauss a household name-revered or notorious-among single men and women alike.

But the experience of writing The Game also transformed Strauss into a man who could have what every man wants: the ability to date-and/or have casual sex with-almost every woman he met. The results were heady, to be sure. But they also conditioned him to view the world as a kind of constant parade of women, sex, and opportunity-with intimacy and long-term commitment taking a back seat.

That is, until he met the woman who forced him to choose between herself and the parade. The choice was not only difficult, it was wrenching. It forced him deep into his past, to confront not only the moral dimensions of his pickup lifestyle, but also a wrenching mystery in his childhood that shaped the man that he became. It sent him into extremes of behavior that exposed just how conflicted his life had become. And it made him question everything he knew about himself, and about the way men and women live with and without each other.

He would never be the same again.

Searingly honest, compulsively readable, this new book may have the same effect on you.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

One of the 33 books you need to read before the age of 30.” — The Independent

“One of the 9 books that defined 2015.” — Tech Insider

“A brutally honest and emotionally exhaustive account of his search for sexual freedom. . . . Yes, there are orgies and swinger parties, but there are also far more intense discussions about the meaning of intimacy and the underlying causes of sexual behavior.” — Booklist

“[Strauss] charms us with confessions of his screwed-up childhood and the many idiotic beliefs and mistakes that have plagued him, then upsells us on the notion that we can be masters of the universe-and he can teach us how. Color me seduced.” — Laura Miller, Slate

“The guy who wrote The Game and lived The Game searches for love and learns that it’s way, way harder. And funnier.” — Joel Stein, Time magazine

“The Truth is fantastic...In the course of exorcising his pickup artist demons, Strauss learns and exposes the barriers to intimacy that so many of us are carrying around. If you’ve struggled with monogamy, or loved someone who has, this book is revelatory.” — Chicago Tribune

“The epiphanies revealed are simultaneously incredibly obvious and richly profound... I want you to read this book. I want your partners to read this book. More than that, I want you to think critically about what it says about you and the world around you and your romantic relationships.” — Grantland

Tech Insider

One of the 9 books that defined 2015.

Chicago Tribune

The Truth is fantastic...In the course of exorcising his pickup artist demons, Strauss learns and exposes the barriers to intimacy that so many of us are carrying around. If you’ve struggled with monogamy, or loved someone who has, this book is revelatory.

The Independent

One of the 33 books you need to read before the age of 30.

Joel Stein

The guy who wrote The Game and lived The Game searches for love and learns that it’s way, way harder. And funnier.

Booklist

A brutally honest and emotionally exhaustive account of his search for sexual freedom. . . . Yes, there are orgies and swinger parties, but there are also far more intense discussions about the meaning of intimacy and the underlying causes of sexual behavior.

Laura Miller

[Strauss] charms us with confessions of his screwed-up childhood and the many idiotic beliefs and mistakes that have plagued him, then upsells us on the notion that we can be masters of the universe-and he can teach us how. Color me seduced.

Grantland

The epiphanies revealed are simultaneously incredibly obvious and richly profound... I want you to read this book. I want your partners to read this book. More than that, I want you to think critically about what it says about you and the world around you and your romantic relationships.

Booklist

A brutally honest and emotionally exhaustive account of his search for sexual freedom. . . . Yes, there are orgies and swinger parties, but there are also far more intense discussions about the meaning of intimacy and the underlying causes of sexual behavior.

Chicago Tribune

The Truth is fantastic...In the course of exorcising his pickup artist demons, Strauss learns and exposes the barriers to intimacy that so many of us are carrying around. If you’ve struggled with monogamy, or loved someone who has, this book is revelatory.

Kirkus Reviews

2015-08-03
Rolling Stone scribe and infamous Lothario Strauss (Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys into Fame and Madness, 2011, etc.) chronicles a lascivious seesaw battle between monogamy and debauchery. For years, sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll seemed to be the author's mantra, even his very reason for being. The Game, Strauss' notorious 2005 book about the art of seducing beautiful women, helped to catapult the journalist to the heights of literary fortune and fame. But after traveling the globe partying with rock stars and fashionistas in a nonstop thrill ride of overindulgence, Strauss met Ingrid, a woman so wonderful in his eyes that he determined to bury his libertine ways forever and dedicate himself to her exclusively. Of course, he immediately screwed up, reverted to his hound-dog ways and discovered that the only possible way of salvaging Ingrid's affections was to check into a high-priced rehab clinic for sex addicts. Strauss' dark humor and intelligence illuminate his (seemingly useless) initial efforts to get with the program, and the encounters with tightly wound psychologists and hapless addicts like himself are both entertaining and thought-provoking. Unable, or unwilling, to accept monogamy, Strauss again reversed course, ditched therapy, and rededicated himself to the pursuit of a polyamorous lifestyle. What follows is an oddly tedious odyssey of orgiastic excess that appears doomed to everyone except Strauss himself. Still, the edgy author's relentless introspection and willingness to openly navigate the landscape of his sex-soaked psyche are compelling, if often frustrating for readers. "It's a lot to take in and I struggle to understand it all. Then I decide I don't need to understand it," he writes. "I just need to do it." Music impresario Rick Rubin serves as Strauss' guiding light, intermittently popping in and out with sage advice. Some readers may have no sympathy for the author, but he delivers an emotionally charged, provocative memoir of a man learning to confront his sexual demons.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172922053
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/13/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,008,599

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