No more jobs, no more taxes, no more checkbook, no more bills, no more credit cards, no more credit, no more money, no more mortgages, no more rent, no more savings, no more junk mail, no more junk, no more mail, no more phones, no more faxes, no more busy signals, no more computers, no more cars, no more drivers' licenses, no more traffic lights, no more airports, no more flying, no more tickets, no more packing, no more luggage, no more supermarkets, no more health clubs...While her "current" spends the summer researching public housing in Stockholm, a moderately wealthy, object-oppressed, and terminally hip New York female of a certain age seeks adventure in the sedate dyke bars of lower Manhattan. Finding none, she answers a personal ad. She is ordered to put on a blindfold before the first meeting with the woman she knows only as "Sir." Not knowing what someone looks like turns out to be freeing, as do the escalating constraints that alienate her not just from her former life, but from her very conception of who she is. Part Georges Bataille, part Fran Leibowitz, this is the Story of O told with a self-referentially perverse sense of humor. Leash extends the logic of S&M to its inexorable and startling conclusion, darkly and hilariously revealing the masochistic impulse as the urge to disappear from the chores, obligations, and emotional vacuity of daily life. First published in 2002.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A gay Manhattan writer explores her limits in DeLynn's latest, a surreal tale of submission and degradation that begins when the anonymous narrator's girlfriend takes a hiatus in Sweden, giving her a chance to play. She starts by cruising the local dyke bars, but when boredom sets in she dubs herself "Chris" and answers a personal ad from a "domme" who makes her don a blindfold for her first visit. Despite her fears and doubts, the relationship quickly progresses beyond the normal limits of dominance and submission as Chris is collared, forced into canine sex and then subjected to a wide variety of painful, kinky stimuli. Things get weirder when she is transformed into a "dog" by her "owner"; after leaving her normal life behind, Chris participates in a strange performance in which she is covered in plaster by an audience of her owner's peers. That act leads her into a world where women own each other in the manner of canines, and Chris is forced to leave behind her "mistress" and her old life. DeLynn is an ironic, thoughtful narrator who analyzes the psychological dependence and identity breakdown that can occur in such relationships, although her graphic descriptions will challenge the digestive systems of many readers. But the larger problem is that Chris remains one-dimensional despite DeLynn's brief efforts to flesh out her life as a writer, and that absence of contrast makes the s&m material and the book seem lurid and cartoonish rather than alluring and exotic.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Hot, humid summer nights in New York--the "Current" being away, researching public housing in Stockholm--the longing for an adventurous summer romance--the disappointment of the dyke bars. All these figure in Chris' rental of a post office box and placement of a personal in the Village Voice saying she is bored, wants to experiment, and is anxious to please. Bingo! She gets a response, answers it, and is ordered to wear a blindfold before meeting with the woman, whom she knows only as Sir. The "blindness" frees her, as, paradoxically, do increasing constraints and demands that lead her to swear 24-7 commitment as a love slave, wear a slim metal collar of subservience, and even engage in cross-species sex that results in an orgasm so intense that she looses consciousness. DeLynn's dark exploration of masochism will shock some, dismay others, turn more than a few stomachs, and titillate those who care for The Story of O and other such inquiries into rough stuff. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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More About the Author
Author Jane DeLynn has been compared to an astonishingly diverse group of writers-from Aristophanes and Euripedes and Rabelais to Jane Austen, Edgar Allen Poe, Jonathan Swift, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, Helene Cixous, JD Salinger, and Woody Allen. Her first-person trilogy of "In Thrall" (a teenager in love with her teacher in the pre-Stonewall '60s), "Don Juan in the Village" (cruising for love in the US and abroad), and "Leash" (tedium of Capitalist excesses leads the narrator on an adventure which leads her to renounce being "human") is considered the definitive portrait of lesbian life in the last half of the 20th century. Also a journalist-she spent two months in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during the first Gulf War-- and librettist-- "The Monkey Opera: The Making of a Soliloquy" was produced at the Brooklyn Academy of Music--she currently resides in Long Island and Los Angeles. Her aim in writing is to "think the Unthinkable and speak the Unspeakable."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
repulsive and intriguing all at the same time,
By A Customer
This review is from: Leash (Native Agents) (Paperback)
I heard about this book on NPR so it seemed like a pretty good bet. When I first started reading the book, I was a little disgusted by the explicitness of the sexual acts depicted. But once I got passed the initial shock, I couldn't stop reading. If you want to read something other than the usual, read this book. However, if you can't get past the graphic and lurid details of s&m acts, I wouldn't recommend this one.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Astonishing Piece of Work,
By
This review is from: Leash (Native Agents) (Paperback)
Don't be put off by the reviews of those too squeamish to get to the, um, bone of this astonishing novel. Many of the erotic scenes ARE chilling and hard to take. (Testimony to the talent here: This stuff is about as far from my personal tastes as it's possible to get, yet I was often surprised, and a bit shaken, to find myself getting steamy. That takes powerful writing.) I've just ordered my fifth or sixth copy of the book. For some reason my friends keep lifting it off the shelf.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good,
By
This review is from: Leash (Native Agents) (Paperback)
I wonder about weird things...like what it is like to be a dog. Well, I got my answer in what I thought was a porn novel, turned out to be an amazing psychological thriller. I couldn't put the book down and I am not sure if it is because I wasn't sure what "Chris" would do next or kept wondering where the dog part fit into this whole novel. If you like out of the ordinary reads, this is a great one.
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