A Kiss Is Just A Kiss

Jacket design by John FontanaLetterforms by Tom CarnaseJacket photograph: The Kiss by William Mortensen, c. 1926. Copyright C. 1989 the Mortensen Estate. Courtesy Paul Hertzman, Inc., and the Mortensen Estate.Harmony Booksa division of Crown Publishers, Inc.201 East 50th StreetNew York, New York 10022Printed in ChinaSmooch your bulldog if you're so inclined. Buss your sister, your brother, your grandpa, and anybody's bouncing baby. No kiss is ever wasted, not even on the winless lottery ticket kissed for luck. Kiss trees. Favorite books. Bowling balls. Old Jews sometimes kiss their bread before eating it, and those are good kisses too. They resonate in the ether. The best kisses, though, are those between lovers, because those are the consequential ones, the risky ones, the transformative ones, the ones that call the nymphs and satyrs back to life, the many-layered kisses that we dive into as into a fairytale frog pond or the warm whirlpool of our origins.From the Introduction by Tom Robbins -- Review