Well written but hardly titillating

I purchased this book with fairly high expectations. It was a pleasure to read however, I did not find it as erotic as it is billed to be. However this book was very well written and did not rely on cliche or tiptoeing around the subject matter which I found highly refreshing and easy to read. I also really enjoyed the moments of humour and romanticism that didn't fall into being sappy or maudlin. An enjoyable quick read. I wouldn't suggest this for someone looking for a serious erotic charge rather, a pleasant tingle.

Rating:


Holy Smokes!

Never have I read a book so devoted to the back door. She seems to have a spiritual awakening from this traditionally vile act, which seems like a stretch, perhaps, to most readers.

Despite the dislike I eventually developed for the narrator and her actions, I couldn't help but anticipate each shocking new scene. I read it in a couple of sittings. This work is quite original, I think, and worth reading, but don't take it too seriously. For those of you who have not experienced or given the pleasures of the rear, this book will most likely get your hopes up, for neither I nor any of my partners have ever experienced such spiritual and psychological awakenings during or after the act. Call us shallow, I guess.

That said, this is still a very interesting work that I enjoyed very much, and I never read erotica.

Rating:


A considered look at a tough topic

Toni Bentley is a dancer. She is first of all in the Beauty business. Her professional training was focussed on creating beauty so as to wrap it around some story, some music, some emotion and then present it as art. This background has two profound effects on her sexual memoir.

* She was trained to convey, not create
Of course conveyors can be pretty creative, but the point is that in exploring the beauty and power of her passiver rôle in sex, she replicates her training. Follow the maestro, let the dance flow through you.

* She focuses on the beautiful and ignores the merely pretty
In her other writings, Bentley is graceful, funny and precise. Here she is a bit clunkier. It doesn't matter. She shooting for the truth about her feelings, and truth, as we all know is pretty beautiful stuff.

The combination of these two effects produces a strange result: an erotic memoir that's fascinating but not sexy. Bentley avoids writing `arousal-pornography' by telling, not showing the action. In a reversal of the usual fiction-craft dictum, she reports what happened in her boudoir in a voice that could be conveying the minutes of the last school-board meeting. Then she goes on to tell the reader what it meant to her, to speculate about herself and the nature of sexuality in terms that are vivid and personal.

So, inspite of the occasionally clumsy prose and her own snarky puns, this is a memoir that goes beyond or maybe it's around, the obvious.

Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE
and the forthcoming novel bang-BANG from Kunati Press.
(ISBN 1601640005)

Rating: