Customer Reviews

Oysters Among Us

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of those books that writers like me crave - the kind of book where you're marking pages and phrases, and getting inspiration and ideas all the time. I don't write erotica, but if I did, this is what I'd want to write. Sexy, spare, meaningful, humorous, and with a flow that makes you want to re-read it as soon as you're finished.

What a great surprise this book was. Not just sexy, but deep and smart and even funny. It is so far from normal 'erotica' that it's hard to describe, but I'm recommending it to everyone. It really should be on mainstream reading lists, in spite of all the explicit sex.

I bought this for my wife, because I heard that it was the kind of erotica that both heterosexual women and men would like, together. After looking through it, I had to read it first, because I couldn't wait to share it for Christmas. It's very elegant and classy, but still down and dirty. The women are strong and smart, the men are honestly drawn and appreciative of women who are strong and smart, and they're all having the kind of exploration of sexuality that I would like to have in my life. 5+ stars for entertainment and enlightenment!

Author Susannah Indigo has written much more than an erotic novel with "Oysters Among Us" - although it will certainly awaken sleeping libidos! It disturbs me no end that this book is defined and marketed as "erotica" and limited, as such, to a smaller reading audience. While there is nothing wrong with erotica, per se, there is so much more than sex with a superficial plot in "Oysters." And the narrative is composed of just plain good writing...magical prose! Pleasure here is not limited to flesh alone.

Set at the beginning of this millennium, the novel consists of thirteen interlocking stories about a group of characters who are either family, friends, lovers, and the children of the above. Most live in Boulder, Colorado. A few live in San Francisco and travel to Boulder, or visa versa, to be with their loved ones. Together they explore their lives, loves, fantasies, dreams, (one of the characters is a psychotherapist), their potential for joy, and the limits of desire. These people just shimmer with life and together they celebrate the human identity. "The most important sin I observe every day," says Madelaine, "is the failure to imagine and live out your very own life as it was meant to be." Pain and regret often accompany delight and pleasure, and Ms. Indigo explores the darker side of the human experience also.

Graceful, quirky, poignant, funny, very sensual, at times perverse, the stories just flow. Their very structure is fluid, and they will catch the reader up from page one. The characters are wonderful, unique/unusual, and well developed. They all interact throughout the book, no matter who is primary in the particular tale or chapter.

Some of the people you'll meet through the "Oysters Among Us" narrative are:

China Sunflower Thomas - 26, a sensual redhead in love with Jack and learning to "fly." She is known for cooking with foods considered to be aphrodisiacs throughout history. Her menu for a "Better Than Sex Party" is saffron fettuccine with fresh lavender, white asparagus and crab meat salad, oysters Casino, a sauce of truffles, chocolate rum trifle, and more.

Jack Iverson - professional photographer, lover of China...with a perpetual wandering eye, who gets punished for his Don Juan behavior and loves every minute of it.

Annie Braverman: 36, naturopath, mother, wannabe courtesan. She oozes eroticism, loves Sam, own many editions of the Kama Sutra, in multiple languages and plans to memorize them all. "People often think the Kama Sutra is just about sexual positions, but it encompasses all the sensory pleasures of daily life - good food, silken clothes, perfumes, music, paintings, gardens. Somebody should revise it for the 21st century - how to make each day voluptuous from start to finish. Of course, we'd have to update instructions like Art #48 - decorating chariots with flowers."

Sam - a handsome, middle-aged, Jewish, man who resides & works in San Francisco but really lives in Boulder where he loves Annie. "Sam changed a little at the Tantra class, all of us did. We agreed we should eat more oysters and more chocolate, pour kindness down like honey, find sex in our laughter and laughter in our sex."

Nobeko, almost 40, a masseuse, beautiful in mind, body and spirit, is extremely unhappy in her marriage. She begins to mysteriously find rare coins and has no idea as to whom they previously belonged or where they come from.

There's also a woman who dances with snakes, a grandfather who reflects on the former lovers in his life and writes "The Book of Love," masquerade balls with most unusual costumes...and so much more. I loved this novel and its characters! Highly recommended.
JANA

This is a very entertaining book! It's very different from other erotica books. It's more like a real novel about real people, except that theres lots of great sex in it! My favorite story was 'Blue Rooms' about the couple who meet on-line and then she hides in the closet. I wished this book never ended and want to read more!!

This is a gorgeous, unique book, full of sex scenes and real people, friendship and dreams, sort of a Sex & the City but with real types of people. Highly recommended

My girlfriend gave me this book for Hanukkah, saying she loved it and it had a really sexy Jewish guy in it. And it did, bless the writer's heart! Middle-aged Jewish sexy guy even..... it may just be the season, but I found this book to be the most joyful bit of sex-writing that I have ever read. I see other comments here that people read it twice right away, and so will I, because I'm sure I missed thinmgs. This book is just ...glorious in its inspiration, sexiness, and the ability to share the parts of it with a woman.

I love these stories, especially the ones featuring the lesbian couple with the girl who was afraid to swim until she was naked at the mall enough, and the Barbies around the equator, and then I cried at the 'Sex Quest story. A very beautiful and touching book.

I love the characters in this book and am recommended it to all my female friends, straight _and_ lesbian. Ruby is such a great earth-mother, sexy lesbian character, and I only wish I knew someone like that.

Excellent - I started reading this and couldn't stop until the end! I want to live with these people and go to the Blue Room, or at least find out what happens to them next! Easily the smartest erotica I've read in forever.