I get the feeling that most law students are closeted voracious readers. Why else would we willingly consume several thousands of pages of dry casebooks without pictures? So, one of the first things I’ve done with my summer is read a book that I’ve been wanting to get to for awhile. First off, in the interest of full disclosure, this is going to be probably a little biased and a little fangirly. I was introduced to Dan Savage several years ago when I worked on a project his brother (a professor) as an undergraduate. He writes a most excellent, and entertaining, sex column (linked supra), records an equally entertaining podcast weekly (download it free from iTunes), and has written several books. I’m a big fan.

The book I just finished, The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family, is his most recent work.

The book focuses on Savage’s upcoming ten-year anniversary with his boyfriend, Terry, and their struggle to figure out how to commemorate the occasion. Along the way, the couple’s son, and Savage’s quirky but supportive family weigh in on the marriage-or-not issue. The couple’s story is interspersed with commentary on the larger gay marriage debate in America. The book is not (and never claims to be) a fair and balanced representation of both sides of the issue. The style is conversational, and admittedly sometimes even veers towards crazy liberal ranting. But Savage presents gay marriage (and gay adoption, and marriage in general, and family relationships in general) in a way that (to me, at least) seamlessly reconciles the conservative pro-family rhetoric with the argument for full marriage rights for same-sex couples.

I’m no expert book reviewer, and even though I’m a liberal I don’t usually go around yelling it from the rooftops. (I’m 24, and I still don’t know whether my mother is red or blue because politics is a personal matter in our family, thankyouverymuch.) But I feel compelled to blog about this because this is an issue that we will be lawyering in the years to come, and this book sets out exactly what’s at stake. It’s not just Goodridge and Hernandez on paper after reading this book; it’s Dan and Terry and D.J. and their dog Stinker. So, I wholeheartedly recommend this book, and if anyone wants to borrow it, I’m in Iowa City and willing to lend you my copy.