Never has sex seemed so unsexy as in “Undressing Infidelity: Why More Wives Are Unfaithful” by Diane Shader Smith (Adams Media, $14.95). A titillating read it is not. Shader Smith claims that in writing the book she was trying to get answers to the question of why married women stray, so she interviewed a bunch of them. What she came up with were no great revelations, just a sordid pile of pathetic tales of adultery.
Some women cheated because their husbands were unkind, boring or bad in bed. Some cheated because hubby had gone astray himself. Name a reason and it’s in here. Some women felt bad about the cheating, and others managed to skirt twinges of guilt quite easily.
Reading this book, you’ll feel as you might while trapped on a bus next to a stranger who’s prattling on about the details of her life: They’re hugely meaningful and interesting to her, but you couldn’t care less. If this book does nothing more, it might show you that people who have affairs are often bored, boring, self-absorbed people who can rationalize anything.
This could explain it: “Lately, the only sex I’m having is with my husband, in the same bed at the same time in the same position, week after week. Welcome to married life.”