Have you been hoping for a really cringe-inducing, terrifically long feature story about why men cheat written by a middle-aged guy ever since the Spitzer story broke? Well, your prayers have been answered. See "The Secret Lives of Married Men" by Philip Weiss in this week's New York.
The sad tale begins, "I’m 52 and have always struggled with the desire for sexual variety," and primarily consists of Weiss wandering from pseudo-expert to married male friend, all the while wondering what would happen if he cheated on his wife. "If my marriage broke up, my wife could easily move in with a sister. I’d be as lost as plankton." Mmm. Plankton. The Baby Boomer's new sexy.
How a story like this makes it to the page is beyond me. I wonder about the pitching process. Did this guy and Moss figure this one out over one too many drinks at the Spotted Pig?
And why, above all, did it seem like a good idea to have a man who did not cheat on his wife tell the story of those men who do?
In Letters from Johns, men cheat because they're lonely, because they're bored, because they're afraid of dying, because they're afraid of living, because they don't know how to say what they want to say, because of the blow jobs, because of the naked women, because of the thrill of it, because life is hard, because fucking isn't, because of all the things that you and I can't see because we're not there in the room with them.
Men cheat because they can.
