Men getting together to talk about their problems with women…do we really want to go there? Actually, yes. My opinion right up front is that this story is amusing and lively and occasionally strikes a note of insight that rings quite true.

Every Thursday night, a quiet meeting of a hundred or so men is held amongst long-time regulars and those to whom someone whispered, "You might find this helpful." The rules of the meeting are quite simple: one time, and one time only, you may stand up and tell your story in whatever detail and fashion you choose. It's not a counseling session; no one in the audience may respond or even ask questions. Three of the newer participants decide that, rather than go home afterwards, they will go out together and let the other two—and the reader—more fully into their tales.

It's very much a story about men. The women in the story exist as roles rather than people: the lover who has moved on, the kind-hearted prostitute, the straying wife, the mysterious woman who won't reveal anything but her name, the glamorous-but-shallow supermodel. It might be tempting to call them stereotypes but I think it's more accurate in this case to call them symbols since much of this novel is clearly symbolic. They exist to give the men life choices to explore rather than to breathe on their own.

With this general theme and setup, you might fear a great deal of misogyny in the story, but it isn't there. I found it easy to like most of the women Benacquista has created, despite their two-dimensional nature, and even the lone exception evoked sadness rather than dislike. As for the male characters, with few exceptions they like women; they are simply struggling in some way in their relationships with them.

The problem with this book is that some people are going to expect it to be something that it doesn't try to be. It would be wrong, I believe, to consider this as an assessment of inter-gender reality, saying that men and women will not communicate directly. It would also be wrong to consider this as a blanket summation of men's attitudes toward women. Nothing in Benacquista's writing gives me the impression that he meant to do either. Instead, I felt he was saying to the reader, "Here are some questions men ask in their lives. What do you, the reader, think?"

With its focus on themes of modern masculine experience, in some ways this is the male equivalent of chick lit, but the general class of chick lit about which Sara Nelson said in Publishers Weekly, "[is becoming a] little more accomplished and grown-up and literary than what that term used to mean." If you focus on that kind of qualifier rather than on any negative connotations to the term, you open yourself up to a pleasant and, occasionally, resonant read. Is this a book that will appeal more to men than to women? I haven't any idea, but it worked for me. ( )

http://rivesderives.blogspot.com/2011/09/homo-erectus-tonino-benacquista.html ( )

Trois hommes, trois déceptions amoureuses, trois approches de consolation... l'un se tourne vers la variété et les prostituées pour éviter toute embrouille émotive, l'autre se tourne vers l'antithèse de sa dulcinée et le troisième se coupe du monde. Si c'est là l'essence de l'histoire, Benacquista ne fait rien de si simple et crée des scénarios à la fois décalés et originaux. Le lecteur est ainsi immergé dans l'histoire de ces trois hommes, de leurs peines, leurs espoirs, mais surtout leur cheminement et des conclusions qu'ils tirent de leur situation. C'est une réflexion sur les mœurs amoureuses, sur la légitimité des sentiments forts et des chagrins chez les hommes ainsi que sur les relations entre hommes et femmes. La fin est simple mais élégante, mais ce qui ressort surtout c'est authenticité et la sincérité de ces trois hommes qui ne cherchent qu'à se tailler une place. ( )