Mr. Keyes regards this book as comprising “optimistic comments on marriage and community.” His view is too modest. It is actually a series of unusually perceptive and entertaining chapters on the cultural and emotional phenomena of our time, from shopping centers and Holiday Inns to survival in an urban environment. The unifying factor among these diverse elements is the author’s concern with the importance of community, with the sense of “belonging” — its loss in contemporary society, and the means by which it can be regained. The latter really boils down to one word, love — a cliche which Keyes manages to infuse with new life simply by being so all-fired enthusiastic about man’s need for it and so down-to-earth about the ways in which he goes about searching for it.
