If nothing else, it's a perspective worth listening to.
I bought this book after being subjected to the marketing for his whole Make Your Man Worship You web package, and figured this was a more sensible way to dip my toe in and satiate my curiosity. I didn't want the treasure trove that solves all the problems he thinks I have as a Woman™, but I did want to know what he thought it was. (There's something very academically alluring about people that are extremely certain about things, and wow was that marketing over-the-top certain of itself.)
In conclusion, this book was actually quite interesting to read. Didn't tell me much new stuff (some of it's just general human interaction stuff - don't yell at people for doing the stuff you asked them to?), but it's not opinions you often hear expressed all at once - honestly it's not the kind of opinions often coupled with self-reflection. It makes assumptions and generalisations, it draws a massive line in the sand between men and women, but it expresses a viewpoint that a number of men may share and that's worth taking a moment for.
He actually at times says "most guys", careful not to generalise for men - just in case, because everyone's not the same, obviously - but has a frustating tendency to not give women the same courtesy, even when making even bigger assumptions. Just to give an example: "Even though it sounds CRAZY to women, most guys spend the vast majority of their time on a pretty even emotional keel (...)" Doesn't sound crazy, Michael, calm down. (but hey, "most guys" right?)
I understand the occasional use of "you" (telling you how "you" feel, and how "you" react to what he's just said), since the book is pretty much exclusively targeted to women (or specific imagined category of woman), but that just makes it more frustrating that he has sweeping assumptions that, at least in my case, were more often than not off the mark, even though I could think of a woman or two it may be true for. It's somewhere between a style of writing and a genuine monolithic view of women, and it's at times very hard to tell which. We bounce between the headline "OK, So Now That I’ve Depressed You By Killing Your “Hugh Grant with Fabio’s Abs” Fantasy," (which, yes, is a funny way to phrase things, but based on other parts of the book, he doesn't actually think it's not accurate) and the classy parentheses "(Yes, I’m using a sports metaphor in a booklet for women. Dumb?)" and the rather insulting implications of the wording in "you need to keep your own emotions and neediness in check".
Despite all this, it's an interesting read. It's an attempt from a man to express the feelings of men who struggle to express their feelings, and the problems and frustrations around when this is expected. Is every part of it true for all men? Not so much, I know guys who agree it's certainly true for some but say it's not true for themselves, at least not to the same extent, and a select few it barely fits for at all. (Believe it or not, guys that are somewhat in touch with their feelings do exist.) But it's still worth reading, because it's a perspective worth understanding. Echoes of the same thoughts could for all you know be going through your boyfriend's head. You never know who it's true for, because at least one man made a real effort to try to understand "all" guys, and came out with the impression that this was true for - well, "most" of them. At least his group of poker friends.
Really, the paradox that's keeping my interest going here is that it's a guy describing all the struggles of emotions in men and the expectations that's suppressing them and how all men feel, and yet I get the feeling that if I say "hey, actually, I have guy friends that DO all these things guys 'never' do, and can sit and talk about deep feelings easier and quicker than me, and can sit and ramble about it while I play games and just hum in response", there'll be an urge in him - despite himself - to say "well, that's not very manly". And that's damn interesting.