Customer Reviews

Zaftig: Well Rounded Erotica

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

 

 

If you get this book be careful: if you think that erotica is only hot sex, then you may be disappointed. Here, and in much of the erotica I like personally, erotica also means literature where sex and sexuality play an important role in characters' lives. This is a collection of stories about larger people who battle the social idea of "thin is sexy" and the people who empower or challenge them. There is plenty of hot scenes here for het and lesbians (I'd say it was about 50/50), nothing really for gay men however. Most of the characters are larger women with the men usually not described. The quality of the pieces varies but four were my favorite for their uniqueness and power to draw me into the tale. These were pieces by Catherine Lundoff,Eleanor Brown, Veronica Kelly, and Diana Lee (two lesbiand and two het piece by the way).

I commend the book for pioneering a new section of the genre of erotica. I definitely found several real gems in the book that made it worth 10 times it's buying price, like "Breathing Lessons," and "Flesh Love," real works of absolute art. I've read them over and over and over, particularly "Breathing Lessons", which makes me cry every time. But I didn't find these two particularly erotic.
On the negative side, I didn't really feel like it focused on the desires of the average reader. This wouldn't have bothered me so much, except that since this is the only book that I know of that focuses on the zaftig figure, so I would have hoped for something that was perhaps a little less broad in it's ambitions. At times it even sort of felt like a compilation of obscure fetishes, like in the story "How Loretta Got a Schlong" - weird, not exotic, not quirky, not on the edge, just weird. There were several of those, like sex with a very old man, or masturbating with an idol which then becomes a fat gay man who then has sex with his male lover and then turns into a woman. It also felt as if most of them focused on butch lesbians - which had their place to be certain, but it really felt like they were the spot light. All of these would have been fine in a book several times it's length.
Overall, this is absolutely worth purchasing, but I wouldn't really plan on being aroused, it's just a really good read. You'll find maybe one or two that make you breathe heavily or move your soul, and they really are absolutely worth it. I'll be the first to buy a sequel if it comes out! Really, honest to goodness worth the money.

This collection of stories celebrates the rich lustiness of larger women, and in a couple of cases, larger men. It's one of the few erotica collections that makes it loud and clear that large women are sexy too. As I read some of these stories, I imagined myself as being the lucky person to be with some of the gorgeous creatures described in these stories.

As far as there not being enough so-called "straight" stories, well I'm sorry but a collection of "all het" stories would be boring. Thank goodness Hanne chose all spectrums of sexuality, not just a narrow band. And heck, seems to me there were enough "het stories" here to satisfy most people. And I certainly don't mind the "girl-girl" stories by any means, but that probably has something to do with my being one of those dreaded "straight males."

Hooray to Hanne Blank for an anthology that proves large women are desireable and darn sexy.

Zaftig is something that a lot of people have been waiting a long time for. An erotica book featuring REAL people, by that I mean, heavier, fatter people, women and men alike. This is a collection of short stories by various erotica authors who I peronsally don't really know all that well. Now, even though beautiful fleshy figures are the spotlight here, there are still a couple of thin people featured in a few stories.
Now, although this is a good book and worth the purchase price (most places sell it around $10-$12), I wouldn't say I was 100% satisfied with it. Well, let's state the good and the bad.
Good things about this book are the variety of sexual situations presented, from the gay and lesbian, to one story featuring bondage acts, to a couple of others with straight couples. There is definitely something for everyone. The downfall to this is that depending on who you are, I don't think most people will be satisfied with this variety as most people really aren't into exaggerated freaky S&M type sex or even three-somes to dildo fetishes. I myself am a 22 year old straight non-overwieght male and the stories I found to be the most enticing were the ones featuring straight sex - a man with a heavy woman. The writing is also very commendable. Fat bodies are described with such force, reality, uniqueness, grace and beauty which I highly appreciated, and isn't the type of description the ignorant american media or masses would use to describe a heavy person. One story featured a fat and husky gay man and the skinny female student who has a huge crush on him and thinks about sex with him and his gay partner. What is interesting in this particular story is the way the big man is described; thick masculine arms, hefty, firm and empowering - definitely not something I'm used to and even though I'm not gay, it gave me a sort of an appreciation for the artistic figure of a big man's body. A few of the stories featured some comedic relief as well, always good. And really to top it all off, the women in these stories are simply ravishingly sexy in all their full-figured, soft and rounded forms!
Now the downside and why I gave this a 3.5. First off, not every story in this is a winner. There are about 3 or so that simply did nothing for me. With a plethora of different authors, you will notice a difference in creative writing. Some are ingeniously creative in their artistic and poetic descriptions, while others simply feel dry and stiff in stories like "The Model" and "Breathing Lessons" and the worst "Alphabet Soup." I was also getting bored w/ the balance of situations in this book. By that i mean that a good 70 - 80% of the stories featured lesbian erotica, and though I did enjoy the descriptions of these beautifully figured women, a lot of them were still described too many times as "butch" and such. Also, since I am a straight male, I would enjoy more straight sex oriented stories, I don't know i guess it just makes me free to picture myself in those situations. A lesbian female would give this a 5 star rating easily. A gay male would probably give this a 1 star rating. One final complaint - the book is just too short. There aren't enough stories in this and all of them are relatively short. Most avid readers will be able to finish this one in a day, easily. Slower readers shouldn't take any longer than a week.
Though it is great to finally see gorgeous fat women featured in sexual situations in all their splendid plentiful beauty (b/c yes, fat women have sex too, and yes they are as gorgeous and just as sexy as thin women), and though this is a wonderful start, people who are into REAL sex will still be left hungry for more even after this book. But for the cheap price, pick it up, there is great stuff in here!

I didn't know what to expect when I started reading this book.., but I wish someone had really warned me! I haven't been able to find anyone who shares my same drive for sex and erotica, unitl I read this book. All I needed was this book, some privacy and a little bit of chocolate, and I was a very satisfied woman!

Wow! This book is hot! I did not find it disappointing in the least -- rather I began to see myself as well as my lover in a different light. Deserving of passion, ecstasy, pleasure, satisfaction -- regardless of size. I liked this book so much that I came back here to see if there are any more like it! And to the reader who is disappointed at the emphasis on lesbianism -- wow can I relate -- you know every time I am in the mood for a good love story -- and go to the movies -- What a turn off -- in my face hetro's!! I have no problem either with what people do in the privacy of there own bedroom -- as a matter of fact I enjoy reading about it now and then... but this blatant and public display of heterosexuality?? enough already -- I can't open a magazine, or go to the movies with out it being shoved in my face.... ; ) Thank goodness for the reprieve I got with this book!! I would reclassify however to 60/40 -- 60% straight or bi encounters and 40% lesbian. Overall, this is a VERY WELL ROUNDED BOOK (pun intended)!!!! Buy it -- you will not be disappointed!!

This erotic short story anthology is about the sensual enjoyment of big women and those who love them. They're hot and full of delight and humour. There is lesbian and hetersexual content. Try page 95! Several of the short story authors I recognized from Hot and Bothered and Best Lesbian Erotica. A good read, especially for voluptuous women.

At first I didn't know what to expect reading this book. And while some of the short stories are a reach to reality...all I needed some privacy, a lil' chocolate and smoke for afterwards!

Hanne Blank (ed.), Zaftig: Well-Rounded Erotica (Cleis, 2001)

I'm not usually one for editors who insert their own work in anthologies, but I have to admit, I liked Hanne Blank's story in here the best of the entire lot. In a collection that ranges from the explicit to the in-your-face explicit, Blank's "Denial" is a whole different ball of wax. It's tense and restrained. It focuses on two characters who don't really understand their attraction to one another, and proceed accordingly. My jaw actually dropped at the end. An impressive bit of story-crafting all around.

Not to say the rest of the book isn't good, it's just good in a different way. Those who find themselves geared toward the conventional ideas of beauty probably aren't going to find much here that's workable for them (though Blank's story is the exception to the rule), but those who are a bit more open-minded about body types are going to lap it up like cream. Like most anthologies, the quality of the stories does vary, but there's nothing here that's entirely unreadable, though some of the stories are far less concerned with character, plot, etc. than they are with advancing a viewpoint. Still, message erotica is kind of like [...]; it'll take the most discerning, critical viewer to really care about shallow characters and nonexistent plots when all the blood is stampeding from brain to nether regions.

A fun little collection, and a must-read if you're into this particular slant on the genre. *** ½

Humans are sexual --all humans, not just the skinny ones, not just the young ones, not just the straight ones. It's unusual to read a sex scene without all the other history that normally goes into a storyline. The reader needs a very open mind. There are no soft literary Anais Nin descriptions here. Zaftig writers call it what it is. It's almost feels like voyeurism; each story is a new window and as each curtain opens you never know what you're going to see. This collection of stories will definitely not appeal to all tastes. There are 9 lesbian stories, 7 hetero stories and 2 woman-meets-object stories.

I have a hard time recommending this book as a whole though the concept is good. There are empowering women and situations but I certainly wouldn't call every piece titillating. Some of the descriptions were just distracting like, "his hand is moving slowly, creeping like a centipede..." Yikes! That doesn't impose images of eroticism. Or "she blushed becomingly." Just because it has plus women in it isn't a reason to buy or recommend it. I'd like to see something on the market celebrating the beauty and sexuality of full-figured women with a little more literary and a little less tawdry.