The Kiss

... The cover art gives a misleading impression about the content. Nearly all of the imagery inside depicts genital kissing. If your affections tend toward the closest kinds of physicality, there's a lot to like. Anyone looking for more hearts'n'roses kinds of things should keep looking. That said, Dopp presents over fifty enjoyable images of oral intimacy. Artistic styles range from Masereel's sensual brush drawings, to enticing crayon drawings and watercolors, to lithos, etchings, and (I think) an aquatint. Although Dopp takes care with attributions on the artwork, he has the maddening habit of omitting mention of each piece's medium. The book's text, a third to half of its total volume, offers a brief summary of the social and natural history of kissing, both the lip-to-lip and more intimate sorts. Little, if any of the text describes the illustrations, however. I came away with decidedly mixed impressions of this slim book. I expected PG imagery, but most of this is R and up. I enjoy that, but other readers should make sure that's what they want. I found that the text barely gave the biological foundations of kissing their due, and had only the vaguest relationship to the artwork. But, for the pictures' sake, I round this one up to four stars. -- wiredweird