From Publishers Weekly
A woman bent on revenge, a man craving extremes and the self-doubts of middle age are all part of this diverse collection, already a bestseller in Australia. Although Learner, a screenwriter (HBO's The Unmasking of O), writes most often from the point of view of a straight woman, she occasionally adopts male and bisexual points of view, and she's best when she features a voyeuristic element. In the opening story, "The Woman Who Was Tied Up and Forgotten," a married couple rekindle their passion with the joys of bondage, but even that innovation soon needs added spice. The clich? that people in power really want domination is turned on its head in a surprising climax. Another tale, "Looking for Strange," describes the allure of a single character from the perspectives of two lovers, which converge in the heated encounter of an adventurous threesome. Perhaps the most imaginative story, "The Short Man in Crime," features a six-foot-five-inch woman who learns the beauty of her form from a five-foot-one-inch man. Some portraits are stronger than others, but each erotic narrative pushes the reader toward the next with great expectation, and the final story, "The Promiscuity of Bats," joins all of the characters in a stalled elevator on Christmas Eve. One man puts a drug, ecstasy, in the champagne he's carrying and the ensuing orgy brings everyone back out for a curtain call. It's no mystery why this explicit debut has found an enthusiastic audience Down Under.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Los Angeles-based playwright and screenwriter Learner's debut hardcover is a polite sex aide for marrieds, lovers, celibates, and others who deny themselves realistically textured erotic fantasy on their own but enjoy looking at someone else's dream-sex, especially if it's as neatly written and controlled as this. Learner devises 12 interlocked stories, set in Sydney, Australia, with many of the same characters appearing in them, presented from a variety of sexual attack angles. In the first story, middle-aged dominatrix Sandra is married to dentist Brian and discoverssurprisinglythat she likes being dominated by her husband when he ties her to his dental chair and performs unusual feats with his electric brushes, etc. Soon enough Robert, chief foreman of a construction company, who has been watching all this daily from his hanging steel cage outdoors, decides to enter the fun. The tales cover hetero-, bi-, gay, exhibitionist, and SM activities, with the recurring characters enjoying new excitements, as well as a few huge sighs of nostalgia for bedrooms past. The story ``Ice Cream,'' for instance, suggests fresh uses for richly creamy and syrupy ice stuff . . . raspberry, vanilla, mocha, or chocolate, it hardly matters. Silk-pajama fare, mostly female-oriented. --
Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
