The characters in this bold and compassionate novel by Elizabeth Searle find themselves in uncharted territory as they explore what is possible within the sexual boundaries of friendship, love, and identity. As the Los Angeles Times has said previously about Elizabeth Searle, she sets out to "test the limits of the sensible, the approved, even the sexually possible." With this debut novel she creates a sexy, four-sided love story unique to our times in which gender is constantly redefined.
A Four-Sided Bed
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Seldom has the subject of multiple sexual relationships been written about with such grace, depth, and passion as by Elizabeth Searle in A Four-Sided Bed. She writes like an angel, with beautifully poetic prose that enhances the emotional delicacy of the scope of love. Alice and J. J. are in love, and it's Alice's first time. Amid their tender revelations of intimacy, J. J.'s former stint in a mental institution comes to light, as well as his sexual relationships with Bird, a young woman, and with Kin, who Alice later learns is a man. It was a three-way love that saved his life. When Bird and Kin reenter J. J. and Alice's life--Kin now living with AIDS--Alice must redefine the meaning and the boundaries of love.
From Library Journal
In Searle's debut novel (My Body to You, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize in 1993), love is more than a mode of physical expression. The characters: J.J. and Bird, a young man and woman who meet in a mental hospital; Kin, a gay man and Bird's longtime friend, who rescues them from their illnesses through kindness, love, and three-way sex; and Alice Ann, J.J.'s pregnant wife of four years, who doesn't like the scenario she sees unfolding when J.J. receives a braid of his hair, cut in the hospital, along with an invitation to the wedding of Kin and Bird. There are passages of surreal beauty and genuine emotion in the letters Bird sends J.J. while on her honeymoon with a sick Kin, both wishing for J.J.'s presence, and all the characters are fully realized. This book is excellent at what it intends to do. That, however, may not be for all libraries.?Judith Kicinski, Sarah Lawrence Coll. Lib., Bronxville, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
Elizabeth Searle is the author of four books of fiction: GIRL HELD IN HOME (2011, New Rivers Press), CELEBRITIES IN DISGRACE (new eBook from PFP press, 2011) A FOUR-SIDED BED (new paperback from PFP press, 2011) and MY BODY TO YOU (new paperback forthcoming from U. IA Press). Elizabeth also conceived of and wrote libretto for a theater work, TONYA & NANCY: THE ROCK OPERA, which is based on the Harding/Kerrigan skate scandal and which has drawn national media attention. Elizabeth won the Iowa Short Fiction prize for MY BODY TO YOU (James Salter, judge). A FOUR-SIDED BED appeared on the Boston Globe Paperback bestseller list, was an editor's choice on Amazon and was nominated for an ALA book award. Her CELEBRITIES IN DISGRACE was called a 'miniature masterpiece' in the New York Times Book Review and was produced as a short film in 2010 by Bravo Sierra Pictures, which is now developing A FOUR-SIDED BED as a feature film. Elizabeth's stories have appeared in anthologies such as MEN UNDRESSED: Women Writers on Male Sexual Experience (2011, Dzanc Books) and DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME (Simon & Schuster, 2007). Over thirty of her stories have been published in magazines including Ploughshares, Redbook, Kenyon Review & New England Review. She earned her BA from Oberlin College and her MA from Brown University. She has taught fiction writing at Emerson College, UMass Boston and Bennington MFA. She teaches fiction, pop fiction and scriptwriting in the Stonecoast MFA program. She lives in MA with her husband and son. She won Boston's 2010 Literary Death Match.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Like nothing else...,
By
This review is from: A Four-Sided Bed (Paperback)
except maybe Jeanette Winterson's "Written on the Body." I felt deeply pulled in by this novel, which unfolds slowly and bathes you in an incredibly intoxicating, emotional mist. It is highly erotic and engrossing, and one of the only well written and overtly bisexual works of fiction. The only failure here is the ending which becomes a little too melodramatic and (I think) untrue to at least one of the characters. But the quality of language, plot, and character are very, very high. I took it in while I was recovering from a break-up and the relationships in Searle's book were enough to distract me. I consider it my rebound (without the consequences). Please read this book.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unsatisfying,
By C (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Four-Sided Bed (Paperback)
It took me a long time to get into this book. I found the writing to be stilted and unnatural rather than poetic and flowing. Other than Kin, I didn't feel much for any of the characters and found it hard to understand their motivations. The descriptions were very good but got to be too lengthy and ultimately obscured the action and made me want to skip paragraphs. The ending was a letdown and the characters seemed to just arrive there bewildered rather than having reached any sort of closure.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strongly recommend A Four-Sided Bed,
This review is from: A Four-Sided Bed (Kindle Edition)
Erotic, lyrical and moving, A Four-Sided Bed draws the reader into the lives of Allie, JJ, Bird and Kin, sensitively exploring the myriad ways people can fulfill each other emotionally. A must read.
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