Kirkus Reviews QR Code
NEUROTICA by Melvin Jules--Ed. Bukiet

NEUROTICA

Jewish Writers on Sex

by Melvin Jules--Ed. Bukiet

Pub Date: Oct. 1st, 1999
ISBN: 0-393-04808-X
Publisher: Norton

Any collection of erotic Jewish fiction that begins with Woody Allen’s four-star “The Whore of Mensa” and continues with Harold Brodkey’s 30-page single-sex-act orgasm chase, “Innocence,” has to be absolutely first-rate—and Neurotica is. Other stellar entries include Cynthia Ozick’s “The Pagan Rabbi,” Saul Bellow’s one-act play “A Wen,” an excerpt from Philip Roth’s The Counterlife, Bernard Malamud’s “Still Life,” Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “Taibele and Her Demon,” Leonard Michaels’ “Murderers,” an excerpt from Jerzy Kosinski’s Steps, Erica Jong’s “Enroute to the Congress of Dreams or the Zipless Fuck,” excerpts from Rebecca Goldstein’s The Mind-Body Problem, and Francine Prose’s “Three Pigs in Five Days” from Guided Tours of Hell, as well as selections from Gilbert Sorrentino and Henry Roth, among others. Jews have their own Puritanism but also, editor Bukiet (Signs and Wonders, p. 161, etc.) tells us, consider it a positive mitzvah to have sex on the Sabbath. (“Besides, if work is prohibited and you can’t go to the movies, how else can you spend your holy time?”) Many of the stories are both funny and bitter. None is a dud. Abundantly juicy. One bite and you’re lost.