Jerome Gold’s Sex, A Love Story is about a young couple in early 1960s California exploring sex and its place in their world. The main character is Bob, who is sixteen at the start of the novel. He plans to be a writer and is keen to experience extremes in life as material for his writing. He knows Jennifer, a year younger than him, from a class they are both in. They hook up and he is struck by how ready she is to ask him to make her feel good. They start seeing each other regularly, and the passion between them increases. 

Bob gets summer work on a farm doing physical labor with other men. They talk about a lot of things while they are together, including philosophy and sex. Bob is the youngest and he doesn’t say much about his relationship with Jen, but the men gradually get to know each other. They know about Kerouac and jazz, and they tease each other. It’s not clear they are friends but they have each other’s backs. 

Plenty of the story is about Bob and Jen having sex. It’s not erotic literature in the sense that it is aiming to arouse the reader. Rather, it’s about how they relate to each other and explore their relationship, pushing its boundaries. Gold’s narrator says little about their feelings, but lets them report their experience in their conversations, showing both some trepidation and curiosity. They love each other and recognize the pain it causes to be open about their attractions to other people. But they go ahead anyway in trying out new activities with each other and others. They are very open with each other.

It is not surprising that their explorations cause tensions between them and doubts about whether they can continue as a couple. They are young and it would be odd for them to stay together in the long term.  It is strange when they contemplate getting married, mostly so that it will be easier for them to find ways to be together outside of the scrutiny of Jen’s parents. We get a sense that their time together will not last that long, but that it is very important for both of them. 

There are also occasional flashes to the future, where Bob has become more conventional and successful, working as a university professor. We get mention of the children he has and the divorces he has gone through. The story hints that it is about his memories, and the meaning his relationship with Jen had for him over the subsequent years. Gold is definitely doing more than just portraying a sexual relationship between two people. The social context of the early 1960s is important with issues of sexual justice and women’s role in society being prominent. 

Gold is publisher of Black Heron Press, and has written many other books. There’s no indication that the story is directly autobiographical, but it must have been largely informed by his own experience. There’s no biography of Gold with the book but his book The Moral Life of Soldiers shows that he served in Viet Nam, and subsequently his book Paranoia & Heartbreak: Fifteen Years in a Juvenile Facility says that he worked as a counselor in a rehab program. With Sex, A Love Story, he is addressing another aspect of his life history through fiction.

This novel is distinctive in its examination of sex. While it is hardly a new topic for literature, it’s not easy to avoid cliché or pornographic tropes. There are parts of the work that may run into those issues, but it is a serious exploration that nicely depicts two people curious to push physical intimacy to its limits. 

Christian Perring is editor of Metapsychology Online.

Categories: Fiction

Keywords: fiction, sexuality