4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very strange but somehow compelling, August 31, 2008
This review is from: Erotomania: A Romance (Paperback)
I can only imagine the spam I'm going to get from this review, but here goes. This is not a family-friendly book, so please, make sure the kids are away from the screen!
The basic summary of the book is that two people, who are the perfect sexual match for each other, meet randomly and start doing it. All they're interested in is having sex - the male main character, Jim, often can't even remember what this woman looks like and certainly doesn't know her name. Nor does he seem to care for a while, all he wants is more. As time goes on, he realizes that this is unhealthy and he seeks to know her name, her face, and eventually she kicks her boyfriend out and they move in together, attempting to form a relationship. The relationship is similarly unhealthy, and they go to see a counselor. Meanwhile, they begin to develop other interests, like television, food, and exercise, in the end becoming what appears to be a parody of a modern couple - one is overweight, the other exercises constantly, and they both are obsessed with television.
The idea behind Erotomania is tracking a couple through development. They begin as "animals". After all, the purpose of an animal's life is to stay alive and procreate. They eat takeout almost exclusively, because animals don't cook and forage for food. When they learn each other's names and move in together, they've transcended the animal phase, but they still mainly eat takeout and attempt procreation. Luckily, no children ever result from this union. Then the book starts in on the stereotypes as they become more "human". They go to a therapist who is obsessed with his own diagnoses and pays little attention to their actual problems. They discover microwave cooking when Jim's best gay friend, a chef, leaves them to find their own food. They discover television, which quickly consumes their leisure time. They even discover art, albeit in a way I'd never have expected.
The strangest part, perhaps, is that buried in all the sex and stereotypes, I could actually tell that the couple loved each other by the end. The book's subtitle is "a romance" and Erotomania pulls it off. I never expected it to. It's a completely different approach and utterly unlike anything I've ever read before. In all honesty, I was definitely bothered by the frequent swear words and the sex that pervades the entire book - it's not my choice of reading material. I'm still glad I did, though, as it certainly expanded my horizons. There's no denying that it's interesting, and for someone who is interested in experimental literature, I'd recommend it.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Obsessive-Compulsive is a very funny disorder., July 16, 2008
This review is from: Erotomania: A Romance (Paperback)
This is a wild one. Never knew that total self-obsession, sexual and emotional dysfunctionality could be so funny. There's an s and m scene where our hero commands his woman to say "pollock is synchronistic" in the middle of their sexual encounter. The narrator is a psychological mess, the action is not always clear or logical, I sometimes lost track of who's who, but in the end this is a delightful sexual picaresque inside a spiritual quest. I found it exasperating but also provocative, entertaining, even, at times, touching. I'm sending copies to my sicker friends, definitely recommended.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sex+the mind+intellectual gravity= hilarity, July 17, 2008
This review is from: Erotomania: A Romance (Paperback)
Think--if you can--of Charles Bukowski crossed with Harold Bloom, with a dollop of Sartre thrown in. That's Erotomania. Though it drips with explicit sexual detail, it is not pornographic. It is rather a serious if hilarious investigation of ways we keep from becoming close--and how we might ultimately learn to find love. Searching for a perfect f**k may sound banal in today's world, but in Levy's hands it often becomes transcendent. When his heroine can only achieve arousal in front of abstract expressionist paintings the book also becomes a way to explore the complexity of our relationship to art. I'm not joking, though in many ways Levy is. This is a funny book. At other times sex is only satisfying when the Chinese food delivery man is watching. But no matter. For Levy, art, literature, and the mind matter above all, despite appearances to the contrary. In the midst of an account of a sexual marathon he may recall Flaubert, eloquently. Perhaps the book ought best be seen as a psychoanalytic examination of a mind that reflexively dwells on sex but is actually obsessed by intellectual fulfillment and human connectedness. It is a weird and unexpected combination, but it works. And after all, isn't our modern culture obsessed with sex above all? Among the most original novels I have ever read.
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