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No More Silly Love Songs: A Realist's Guide To Romance

Anouchka Grose

Portobello Books

2010

**** Metro, Sharon Lougher, January 2010


In the words of Wet Wet Wet, love is all around us – and its mindboggling complexity and influence is the subject of this broad-ranging new book from psychoanalyst Anouchka Grose, whose ponderings run from pop culture to the ancient Greek philosophers via psychology and science.


On one level we’re in self-help territory, as Grose’s framework is to wonder what one can expect from love in a society where anything goes.


But she’s something of a humourist, too, and delivers some effortlessly engaging prose.


Her analysis comes with a satisfyingly cynical edge informed by her own unlucky-in-love experiences and the hopelessness of her analytical case studies.


She compares Freud to Leonard Cohen when it comes to articulating thoughts about love and, in a particularly enjoyable instance, links a train of thought from a 400-yearold clam to Elizabeth Taylor.


Indeed, there’s nothing sentimental or cloying about this Realist's Guide to Romance, which should make refreshing reading as we approach the hysteria of Valentine’s Day.

No More Silly Love Songs: A Realist's Guide To Romance
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