Real Rating: 2.5* of five, rounded down

Mawkish. Not as funny as the very relatable subject matter...after all I am an old man, in a relationship with a young one. Instead it felt to me as though the "movements" were more excretory than celebratory, even if they were meant to be in a light, jesting tone.

Very, very disappointed because this is very much an idea aimed directly at me.

Well-developed characters. Interesting plot. Vivid descriptions. A nice read!

*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

I found this book to be too disorderly and unpleasant in tone to finish. It was obvious what the author wanted to achieve, but it failed to hold my interest nor my admiration.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I've long been fascinated by the idea that music and literature are very similar in the way that themes are presented and developed and a story is told, using notes instead of words. For this reason I've been eager to read music-related fiction to see if the authors can find a way to blend the forms. This is what drew me to a book titled <em>The Old Sex Symphony</em>.

Author Vincent Kane has put together a small collection of short stories - each, presumably, a movement in a symphony - dealing with sex among seniors (Perkins-menu-seniors, not high-school-seniors). And Kane, or his publicist refers to the book (according to Goodreads) as "Chaucer meets Masters and Johnson in a humane and hilarious novel about overage sex – including the joys, aches and fearlessness that it entails." Unfortunately, the funniest thing about the book is this description.

The humor here tries to be all sorts of humor at once: droll, tongue-in-cheek, sophisticated, slapstick. But for this reader, none of it works.

I was put off immediately when our first story about a soldier seeing the doctor for a physical, but the soldier refuses to bend over for his rectal examination because he's heterosexual. The doctor quickly suggest bringing in a lady doctor ("Well it would be a bit naughty. I don’t think the missus would be too pleased. But it would be more my cup of tea.") But the first doctor isn't allowed to stay ... "No peeping Toms allowed." Then the pair of doctors just laugh at the man for thinking that a rectal exam was sexual.

Aaaaaand that's pretty much the style of the rest of the book. Only the situations and characters change.

There are some good opportunities and ideas here, but this book just doesn't work. Trying to tie the short pieces together with a pair of doctors reflecting on past cases while trying to write a book about sex over 60, really doesn't work. It's clearly a gimmick to tie these stories together and frankly this might have been better if it had just been some stories about seniors and sex.

I don't recommend this at all.

Looking for a good book? <em>The Old Sex Symphony</em> by Vincent Kane is a limp read.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This one just didn't do it for me. I couldn't stay with it at all. The format wasn't appealing and it just lost me.

I don’t enjoy writing negative reviews, but I can’t imagine who this book is written for. I’m an old codger myself, but this author makes me feel like the latest generation. He must be from my father’s generation. His prose is terrible, the continuity of time or mood of the book is non-existent and unless you’re short of an old person guardedly telling you about his sex life, I wouldn’t waste my time getting through this miasma.

This was a very interesting book, a group of mostly humorous, entertaining short stories set within a loose narrative. Each story had an interesting plot, with a unique character and situation, that was within the spectrum of 55+ sexuality. The stories are not obscene, and yet they clearly convey the issues of adult sexuality. Each short story could easily stand alone, but the longer narrative tying them together was an interesting device, and came to an unusual conclusion.

Great book! The title says it all. Full of British dry humor. I received a free copy from NetGalley and am so glad. I will be looking for more from this author.

I would not recommend this book. It is, essentially, a book of short stories held together by a theme of aging and sex. The author and/or editor felt it also needed two additional structures, that of the movements of a symphony AND that there was a fictional psychologist compiling the stories for research. This scaffolding proved to be unnecessary and distracting from the stories. There were several stories which I felt had much promise and memorable characters and could be developed into full-length novels should the author feel so inclined, or if he had an honest or more skilled editor who could have steered him away from the other gimmicky devices. The story about the clergyman, for example, was very moving. This character's time in Africa, his struggles to minister to a woman who refused to stop an adulterous affair, and his struggle to refrain from an affair with a woman he was attracted to - these are worthy of their own chapters in a stand-alone novel. I also want to note that there was very little I found funny in this book, despite its comparison to Chaucer and so forth. Most of the jokes were about the failures of the aging body, and much of the book was simply misogynistic. The last story about the perverse fellow who could only have sex in a car was particularly offensive, and this was even after it being tempered with the inclusion of a yet another "psychologist" who tells the main character how he apparently developed this penchant. It isn't funny, and the last episode (the sort of Thelma and Louise scene) in that story with the old pervert taking the innocent young woman off the edge of a cliff in his Bentley -- literally left me feeling angry, not amused. I hate leaving negative reviews but am offering this feedback because I feel parts of this book were very good and the fact that they got completely lost in the rest of this mess is unfortunate.

This book sounded promising from it's description. Not really what I was expecting and didn't really worked out for me. While this might not be my cup of tea I'm sure other people will enjoy it more than I did.

This was my first time reading a book from this author. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would gladly read more from him. The writing is intelligent and droll with unique observations and quirky, amusing turns of phrase. I found myself laughing aloud on numerous occasions. Conversations between characters were often clever and witty. The stories told of each main character were frequently tragically poignant, luckily made easier to bear with ample comic relief.

One of the characters, following his GPS to his destination, has the following thoughts: In three hundred yards your destination will be on your left. And in three hundred years your immortal soul will be burning in Hell. What the hell have you done, you bloody fool! This made me laugh so hard I went back to reread it several times. This conversation with another character was almost as amusing:
“What’s auto-erotic?”
“Women are physically attracted to me and vice versa in cars. When they see me in the street they just walk past me, if they see me in a cafe they don’t even notice me, but if I get them in a motor car, well, there’s no holding them.”

I only have a couple of complaints, but the book was so good that they don’t even affect my rating. The first thing that bothered me was the dearth of commas. There were many instances where I felt a comma or two would have helped the reader to pause at the appropriate points or simply more clearly demonstrate the cadence and sentence structure required for optimal interpretation of the text. However, the lack of commas was not detrimental to the overall effect because the writing was concise enough to stand on its own.

My second complaint is that I was unsure at the end whether this was a work of fiction or fictionalized non-fiction. I realize that the disclaimer at the beginning states clearly that this is a work of fiction. And, I suppose it shouldn’t matter, but there was a part of me left wondering whether any part of this had been culled from real life. It just seemed too believable. As I write this, I am well aware of the absurdity of that comment. After all, doesn’t every writer want their work to be believable? In retrospect, perhaps this shouldn’t be classified as a complaint since it would be more accurately described as a compliment. Regardless, I loved the book and highly recommend it.

I suspect this is a love it or hate it book. Speaking as someone over 65, I loved it. Life within the aging body is very different than it looks on the outside. Inside, where you remain forever young, yet must discover life's betrayals and it's joys. Outside, where even you don't recognize who you are at times. Sometimes it's tough to keep a sense of humor about it until a book such as this comes along and you find yourself back within your own group again.

I loved this book and while initially I thought it was not for me I become so caught up in the individual stories I was confused when each example ended and we were back with the psychologist. This book kept me reading until the end., not necessarily as I wanted to reach the conclusion but because it was so well written and an enjoyable experience. Most books sold now are aimed at those who want to know who killed who and why and to be kept on the edge of their seats. This novel kept me lying in bed reveling in the joy of being involved in ordinary lives particularly those who were reaching the end of their time. I was given an insight into the acceptance of a life lived with purpose and found the experience engrossing.

The Old Sex Symphony is as the title alludes - a celebration of the libido and its ups and downs as people past the age of sixty attempt to keep the home fires burning. Ostensibly a scientific study of sexual behavior in the elderly, the study’s researcher and his younger research partner divide their research according to symphonic movements, with brief intermissions of their conversations interspersed with much longer and detailed stories of unrelated people in unrelated incidents - stories of the mundane, the profane, and the profound - of older men and women in licit and illicit encounters.

Vincent Kaye is one of the most talented writers I’ve discovered in quite a while, managing to make the stories of the research subjects both hilarious, poignant, believable, and unbelievable - but, ultimately, when all is said and done, incredibly and believability human. I loved this book. It’s about life, when you get down to the core. And life is messy, beautiful, and should be filled with ice cream. As a matter of fact, reading this book is akin to slowly savoring one’s favorite flavor of ice cream created by the best ice cream maker in the world. I urge you to dip into this book.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. I am under no obligation to write a positive review, nor did I receive any compensation for either reading the book or writing the review.

I'm so glad I finished this book. Like the reviewers who gave up during or after the first "movement" of the symphony, I was bored and frustrated at that point. But I kept on, and found each of the case histories provided by the two main characters (both psychiatric gerontologists), more interesting than the last. The elderly people in later segments had depth and sophistication, unlike poor Sgt. Jones with his swollen prostate, from the first episode.

Perhaps the structure was a bit complicated -- two professionals delving through the sex lives of their clients for a professional paper, arranging the resulting stories according to a musical formula. While I didn't reach the hilarity promised by the publishers, there were plenty of chuckles. And I'll be thinking about some of these characters for a good long while. (NetGalley provided me an ARC.)

I was given a advanced copy of this book for an honest review. While I was intrigued by the concept, a researcher studies sex and compares it to a symphony, the book just wasn't for me and I had a difficult time getting through it. The first part is very comical; but it was hard for me as a young, American woman to relate to an older, British gentleman who has experienced the agony of war and now is experiencing the issues that accompany an enlarged prostate. I think the premise is great. It was very funny, organized, and interesting. The chapters are a bit long; but the novel flows well. The characters are well-developed and the novel well-written.

Caught myself falling asleep on my tablet at work. I have tried a few times to get through it, hoping it was just the beginning that was slow. The book does pick up after the doctors stop being the main characters, but not enough. The first story is about a soldier with prostrate problems with a surprising amount of homophobia. I managed 10% before I DNF. I don't see how this is like Masters and Johnson, outside of that being a catch all for talking about sex. I love Masters and Johnson, but this is an overwritten novel that is not relevant at all.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. I tried but I can't say I enjoyed this book. I thought the premise sounded really interesting but it didn't work for me. I truly disliked the first story, not sure if there was British humor in there that I just wasn't getting or what but I see why some people stopped reading early on. The rest of the book was better but the symphony structure was convoluted and didn't really add anything. Sorry that I can't really recommend it.

I am a compulsive book-finisher and only very rarely have to give up before the end. That said, I sadly admit that The Old Sex Symphony, despite multiple attempts to continue, ended at just over 20% read. Yes, I admit I laughed out loud several times, but the pain of continuing won over the compulsion to finish the book

Described as a novel of sex in the over 60 age group, it was much more the tale of a British Army retiree and his prostate problems. Perhaps I didn't get far enough to get to it, but after the scene where Jones is kicked in the testicles, hospitalized while bleeding into his urine, and diagnosed with aggressive cancer, I had had enough. Thanks for the opportunity to review to NetGalley and the publisher. So sorry I stopped so soon.

I am so sorry that I didn't enjoy this book. Not sure what the target audience is, but I'm not in it.