Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV and Turned On Their Sex Lives for 101 Days

this book was as tame as a rated G movie. if i wanted to read about kids and cutesy inside jokes i’d talk to my coworkers. overrated basically.
Rating: 1 / 5

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book.

I was afraid that the only thing that would leap out at me was the unflagging author’s…*ahem.*

But it’s not that kind of book, and that certain, ah, shall I say, instrument is actually incidental and serves more the function of a literary vehicle of sorts (that you can’t help but cheer for as if it’s Herbie the Lovebug at a Nascar race).

This is a literary romp that celebrates–above all else– the love and devotion that this intrepid couple has for one another, and how they work together–to their mutual benefit– to succeed in their challenge to turn a sad trend of sexless marriages that they heard about on its head (and sideways, and upstairs, and downstairs, and outside, and in another state…).

And here I thought that bachelors got all the action.

And it even serves, ultimately (and somewhat surprisingly, to be sure), as a wholesome morality play, and indeed conducive to Family Values:

The secret to their succesful marriage is not consistent, mind-blowing sex on a daily basis, because that, quite naturally, doesn’t happen everyday, anyway (though the smile on these happy campers grow wider when it does happen, to be sure).

The secret–that’s apparent from the beginning–is the love and respect these two have for one another.

Though the copulating in and of itself does create a real renewal of romance and bonding that is conducive to any relationship (they find themselves touching each other more and more as the story progresses, between the daily quota), and despite the endeavor having mechanical aspects to it when the adventure traverses a plateau and becomes almost routine, it is the couple’s emotional devotion off the bat which shines through, for each other, and their children, and which ultimately subordinates the sexuality of the mission.

Quite simply, this is a racy–if not risque’–love story of a monogamous, middle-aged couple who decide to embark on an adventure–a rather prodigious sexual feat, actually, under oftentime stressful circumstances– that makes the honeymoon of their youth just a preliminary warm up by comparison.

In the process, the likeable couple cement an already well-glued bond for the longer haul, which is a very good thing.

And they prove that today’s 40 is indeed yesterday’s 30 (if not 20).

Indeed, as a cultural indicator, this book is at the vanguard of the changing demographics that are raising the bar on our traditionally youth-centered culture upward as the boomers age (and refuse to go quietly into the night), and *Just Do It* is to Mr. Brown’s generation what the 60+ and still-rocking Rolling Stones (who were rather recently touring and looked great) and 60+ Sylvester Stallone (who rather recently proclaimed “I Am” by robustly reprising his alpha male roles as Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, and looked great) are to theirs.

And, coinciding with all of that, and apart from the politics of it, is the presidential campaign of John McCain, who is the oldest presidential nominee in American history, and yet is enjoying strong support from many (especially from his boomer generation) who don’t consider him–or themselves, for that matter– “too old” at all.

That’s not a delusion. Indeed, like Rocky Balboa against the young champion Mason “The Line” Dixon– but in reality, not fantasy– McCain is going toe-to-toe with the much younger Obama all the way to the closing round.

All of that reflects the cultural bar raised by retiring boomers entering seniority with an excellent–and unprecedented– quality of life for their age group, and extended lifespans, and that demographic seachange has produced a book–not fiction, but nonfiction– written by a 40-something (one generation behind the boomers) who could very well have been telling the rollicking tale of a pair of concupiscent college students on Spring Break that lasts for a hundred days.

The book has energy, and the energy is youthful (and contagious, if sales to other married couples are any indication).

Mind you, these are middle-aged adults with full-time jobs, mortgages, and school-aged children, yet behave like teenagers in love.

And it is that–the unflagging energy and determination–that leaps out of the pages, but not just of the characters themselves, but the energy, determination, and agility of the writing itself (among *ahem* other agile things).

This writer was dealing with a sensitive subject, sharing the most intimate aspects of marriage, and yet he remains decent and respectful–both to his wife and children, and to the reader–throughout, which is not an easy task when considering the subject matter.

It is not blandness. On the contrary, it is *Tom Jones* with Albert Finney in its serial libidinousness, but it demands discipline and a deft ability and sensitivity with language to narrate the exuberant and repetetive indulgence of the primal urge without ever once entering the realm of [...] (the actual field trip to the porn convention in Las Vegas notwithstanding), and that in itself is a writing accomplishment which is probably overlooked in the whirlwind of the plot.

Think about it: A novel about a man copulating with his wife for 100 days straight and presented in such an inoffensive and even playful way that it could very well make a priest chuckle, at least here and there. (They are, after all, happily married.)

And yet, one senses, by the very exuberance of the mission, the reverberating, primal urge driving it, the courage needed to write such a book, and the control required to tame the language that’s chomping at the bit while writing it, a tension within this author that wants to break out of convention and let loose, exuberantly and courageously, and with an adventurous imagination that is now primed for fiction.

This is a first novel. Watch this guy. A word to the wise: Get your hands on the first printing of the first book of what is the golden ring of a budded author newlywedded to the literary world.

And if the honeymooning debut is any indication, this groom will not only do his duty and deliver, but is just warming up.
Rating: 5 / 5

This was a boring story did little for my sex life.It didn’t really cover how they really did it ,if they really did do it.It was more of a story about a married couple and their kids.Don’t waste your money.
Rating: 2 / 5