Happily married Nigerian clerics Jacob and Rosita Adeniran have partnered to create a guide to successful matrimony. They begin by lamenting the current state of marriage, in which poor parenting skills are the unhappy result of the lack of good parenting role models. Such role models are scarce in part because couples don’t try to stay together in mutual respect and love.

One key component to a loving marriage is sexual satisfaction. The authors offer practical advice about all aspects of sex in marriage, from romance to foreplay to the act of sex itself. Foreplay can include such apparently unrelated acts as helping with housework so that there’s more time for sex, and the act can be enhanced with organic supplements “to increase blood flow.” Sexual activity is negatively affected by physical and psychological disorders, so a chapter with realistic situational questions and answers addresses many such issues. Marital sex should be practiced as a life-long, loving, respectful ritual; the authors believe this kind of union is recommended and celebrated in the Bible.

The Adenirans’ book is enthusiastic and well-organized, with a section for notes at the end of each chapter and a list of recommended readings. Some readers in the US may be perplexed by some of the Nigerians’ cultural references to demonic activity and the like, but others will be charmed by the importance attributed in Nigerian society to extensive family visits, mutual shopping trips, and references to enjoyable sex between “aged couples,” including “scrubbing each other’s back, and fighting and reconciling.” Overall, this is an admirably intentioned manual that would be relevant to modern couples everywhere. Sharing their own secrets for life-long happiness, the authors succeed because they present the subject of marital sex frankly, logically, and positively.

RECOMMENDED by the US Review

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