The Best American Erotica 2004 [Paperback]

Susie Bright (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Best American Erotica | Publication Date: January 6, 2004

APPEALING TO EVERY TASTE AND TYPE OF SEXUAL ARRANGEMENT, NOTHING IS TABOO AND ANYTHING GOES IN THIS CUTTING-EDGE COLLECTION EDITED BY SUSIE BRIGHT -- AMERICA'S TASTEMAKER OF EROTICA

Book Magazine called her "America's ranking connoisseur of sex, porn, and freedom of physical expression." Tristan Taormino exalted, "The absolute bomb" in The Village Voice. More discerning than any judge and far ahead of the curve, Susie Bright plucks the best stories from every genre to create her much-anticipated annual collection.

In The Best American Erotica 2004, Broadway superstar Alan Cumming tells of the deep knowing offered by one stranger to another after casual sex; in science fiction hotshot Geoffrey Landis's bawdy fairy tale, we learn about the very first penis; Touré's breathless prose poem sets us up with an evening's worth of erotic visitors; and in Jerry Stahl's story, a man recalls his boyhood fascination with his mother's friends and their elaborate undergarments.

Always taking her readers to undiscovered places, Bright never disappoints in giving them an uninhibited, something-for-everyone collection of the year's most divine erotica.

CONTRIBUTORS

CLAIRE TRISTRAM, STEVE ALMOND, SHARON WACHSLER, RACHEL KRAMER BUSSEL, ALAN CUMMING, DAVID R. ENOCH, DAWN O'HARA, BILL NOBLE, JOHN YOHE, A. W. HILL, SUSANNAH INDIGO, MAGGIE ESTEP, JAMESON CURRIER, R. GAY, RACHEL RESNICK, SIMON SHEPPARD, GEOFFREY A. LANDIS, JOY VANNUYS, TOURÉ, DOMINIC SANTI, JERRY STAHL, I. K. VELASCO, LISA MONTANARELLI, JAMES STROUSE

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Variations on the standard hook-up fantasy alternate with stories based on more elaborate, imaginative conceits in this year's edition of Bright's annual collection. One of the most amusing offerings is David R. Enoch's "Sex in Space: The Video," in which an astronaut seeks public revenge when his libidinous space lover cheats on him with another astronaut. John Yohe offers a more earthbound erotic turn in "They're for My Husband" when a woman takes her cross-dressing spouse shopping for lingerie, only to team up with the female sales clerk for an unexpected exercise in humiliation. More cutting humor is on display in James Strouse's "Joanie," in which a chubby 16-year-old girl finds a novel way to rebel against her parents when she is sent to feed the tropical fish of her father's out-of-town coworker. Magazine writer Tour chips in with a snappy piece of sex talk poetry titled "The Guest," and Broadway star Alan Cumming tells the story of a coke-fueled romp that ends in tears; other contributors include Geoffrey Landis, Jerry Stahl and Maggie Estep. Some entries disappoint with by-the-numbers plotting, but the quality of the writing is generally high, and Bright's quick-hit format offers plenty of instant gratification.
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Review

In Touch With stories that portray every kind of sexual encounter imaginable, there is always something to stimulate the mind and more. Sit back, take a bite, and enjoy.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743222628
• ISBN-13: 978-0743222624
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,452,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent quality, January 28, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Best American Erotica 2004 (Paperback)

Excellent reading, some funny stories, some intense, most very good, with a couple of stories, like the girl-who-only-wore-red-dresses one, that just soar with imagination and wild fantasy!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not My Cup of Tea, April 29, 2009

By 

K. Carson "KC" (MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best American Erotica 2004 (Paperback)

I was quite disappointed in this book.

You should know, first, that I read erotica for the sexual stimulation of it, not for the beautiful language or catching story which I can get in any other kind of literature. The stories here are much better-written than the stuff I read on literotica online, but I do not find most of them titillating.

I am an open-minded, sexually confident young women with varied tastes and a healthy, active, vanilla (and delicious) committed sexuality. I enjoy a wide variety of topics for erotic stories, but this book, though broad in scope, does not align with many of my tastes at all.

I agree that the story of the woman in the red dress was exciting and enthralling and titillating (even though I usually don't like the hard-out BDSM stuff), but most of the stories in the collection left me cold (like two men wasting time in a hotel room... not having sex), disturbed (hard-out anal date rape), or disgusted (a really good orgy story that ends with a dead horse!)

If you want to read a well-written short story about sexual tension and fantasy on a Japanese commuter train, or a sweet story about what it's like to sustain sexuality after you dry up and cool down post menopause, buy this book. If you want something that will help warm you up for sex, find something else.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great stories!, March 5, 2004

By 

CoffeeGurl - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Best American Erotica 2004 (Paperback)

What I love about The Best American Erotica 2004 is that the stories have a great balance of plot, characterization and erotica. They're wonderful and literary -- something to stimulate the mind as well as the loins. I like the dark humor of "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Porno Movie," the irony in "The Disabled Loo," the starkness of "The Cool Cat," and the fetish in "The Girdle Boy" (which is also featured in Best Fetish Erotica). I hadn't liked the previous installments as much as I liked this one. Susie Bright has chosen some memorable and interesting stories this time around. I recommend it to all erotica enthusiasts. This is a must-have anthology!