What, precisely, is ``bad sex''? Gathering contemporary writers from England, Ireland, Canada, Africa, and the US, Hoyland (Fathers & Sons, not reviewed) comes up with 21 quirky scenarios. Plots, for the most part credible, are more varied than one would imagine. The volume itself is masterfully orchestrated. Early stories are calm and tender, focusing on relationships in which sex plays a small part. Lisa Appignanesi's ``Beast'' captures the unique point of view of a husband whose feminist wife has just published a book about masturbation. In ``Strange Attractors'' Jane DeLynn tediously but perceptively chronicles the way people keep toeholds on dying relationships: Her narrator doesn't like drugs or alcohol but uses them ``for fear that we would no longer be able to converse at all if our bodies were not being affected by the same constituency of chemicals.'' As the collection progresses, the texts gradually become more explicit. Some can be discreet, if not charming—Victor Headley's ``Christmas Present,'' for instance, whose narrator, embroiled in a relationship built solely on sex, sees himself as a worthless stud. But in the stories that follow, the intensity increases, S&M imagery appears, hints of murder surface. (It's impossible to read Ian Breakwell's pseudo-diary, ``Fade To Black,'' without cringing.) Then, just when you want to toss this book away, the stories become gentle again—but now they are anything but innocent and contain some wonderful humorous touches. The married lover in Catherine Hiller's ``Some Rules About Adultery'' carefully stages three afternoons of bad sex in order to end a two-year affair. Mary Scott's ``D.I.Y.'' portrays a promiscuous woman, wanting a break from men, who goes on a ``women only'' tour, only to discover her trip-mates are all paired off. In perfect closure, the protagonist of Molly Brown's ``Choosing the Incubus'' finds her human lover pales beside her demonic nightly visitor. The title might be a turn-off, but the texts themselves are surprisingly enjoyable.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1994
ISBN: 1-85242-307-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Serpent’s Tail
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
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