A surprisingly introspective, appealingly spicy, and thoroughly original dominatrix story.
A novel focuses on the double life of a Manhattan woman.
By day, Cristela Maria Davila is a leasing agent, showing apartments to prospective tenants, but in the evenings, she becomes dominatrix-for-hire “Mistress Clara.” She works at “Belle’s House of Unusual Pleasures,” a BDSM dungeon for customers wishing to indulge their kinkiest fetishes and participate in erotic role play. Clara endured a rough childhood. Her impoverished single Venezuelan mother provided for her and her brother, Alex, through welfare checks and food stamps. The novel thoughtfully examines how that upbringing both affected Clara’s financial perspective and informed her perceptions of men. With chapter headings named for both vices and virtues, the book chronicles Clara’s devilish exploits alongside her co-workers at the dungeon—Virginia, Justine, Sin, and Daisy—all contributing unique intimate histories of their own. Through the interactive, colorfully described fantasy sessions with her clients, Clara begins to become empowered by her simulated dominance of the men who hire her. She separates herself from other classic service providers as her role play, while physical, hypersexualized, and arousing, remains strictly noncoital. In keeping Clara’s narration smooth and her personality curious, clever, and warm, De Soprontu tempers the more risqué scenes with a character who initially enjoys the extra income but eventually embraces the theatrical thrill of the spectacle. A story of sex, identity, and renewal, the novel effectively intertwines Clara’s past and present lives in a way that makes her tale a simultaneously compelling, intriguing, and effortlessly entertaining read. The provocative nature of the story will, naturally, appeal to readers of erotica, as the author never skimps on potent passages of steamy dialogue and racy scenes between Clara and her cohorts. Often their interplay expands outward to include threesomes and foursomes or activities that feature sex toys, clothing, and even food (readers won’t look at a snack cake the same way again). Yet through Clara’s intimately social interactions, De Soprontu imparts views on themes of poverty, class differences, race, identity, self-preservation, strength, and deliverance, all tightly bound within the intricate, acutely psychological opera of dominance and submission interplay.
A surprisingly introspective, appealingly spicy, and thoroughly original dominatrix story.Pub Date: July 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73319-500-3
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.
A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.
Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son and Black Boy, this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.
A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Library of America
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK TO SCREEN
A quick, biting critique of the publishing industry.
What happens when a midlist author steals a manuscript and publishes it as her own?
June Hayward and Athena Liu went to Yale together, moved to D.C. after graduation, and are both writers, but the similarities end there. While June has had little success since publication and is struggling to write her second novel, Athena has become a darling of the publishing industry, much to June’s frustration. When Athena suddenly dies, June, almost accidentally, walks off with her latest manuscript, a novel about the World War I Chinese Labour Corps. June edits the novel and passes it off as her own, and no one seems the wiser, but once the novel becomes a smash success, cracks begin to form. When June faces social media accusations and staggering writer’s block, she can’t shake the feeling that someone knows the truth about what she’s done. This satirical take on racism and success in the publishing industry at times veers into the realm of the unbelievable, but, on the whole, witnessing June’s constant casual racism and flimsy justifications for her actions is somehow cathartic. Yes, publishing is like this; finally someone has written it out. At times, the novel feels so much like a social media feed that it’s impossible to stop reading—what new drama is waiting to unfold. and who will win out in the end? An incredibly meta novel, with commentary on everything from trade reviews to Twitter, the ultimate message is clear from the start, which can lead to a lack of nuance. Kuang, however, does manage to leave some questions unanswered: fodder, perhaps, for a new tweetstorm.
A quick, biting critique of the publishing industry.Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780063250833
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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