Quiver: A Book of Erotic Tales [Paperback]

Tobsha Learner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Plume (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452279844
• ISBN-13: 978-0452279841
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #887,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and erotic., October 31, 2003

By	James Yanni (Bellefontaine Neighbors, Mo. USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Quiver: A Book of Erotic Tales (Paperback)

This is a very well-written collection of very graphic erotica. Not for those uninterested in something of value purely for its prurient interest, nor for those with extremely outre kinks, for those of us with a concept of the erotic vaguely within standard norms -- there's a bit of kink to be found here, but nothing that anyone unbothered by a bit of homoerotica will find truly unsettling -- these stories are excellent for getting the juices flowing. Further, they actually have plots and characterization, and few if any sloppy writing errors, all of which places them far beyond what seems to be the standard in the common run of books that depict graphic sex.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quality characters, creative sex, quality erotica., February 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Quiver: A Book of Erotic Tales (Paperback)

I found this to be an excellent piece of erotic fiction, with characters that had a surprising depth. This is particularly notable considering that this is a collection of short stories. The sex is creative yet vanilla enough to appeal to most (except the homoerotic squemish).

My girlfriend and I greatly enjoyed this book and highly reccomend it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A titillating, idiosyncratic collection of erotic stories., July 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Quiver: A Book of Erotic Tales (Paperback)

The stories are a bit more graphic than I was led to believe by the jacket--this is expicit erotica bound in a lovely expensive trade paperback.

The raw nature of the depiction of sexual acts is offset (and enhanced) by the subtle storytelling and the spooky character development. These people are living, breathing, flawed individuals with doubts, fears, and very specific turn-ons.

As explained on the back cover, the stories are linked...to a degree. Learner brings characters from one story into another, from time to time, in a sort of cameo appearance. These cameos don't seem to affect the stories themselves, nor do the reappearing characters develop any further; it feels like a device, an afterthought.

The stories are powerful and affecting enough on their own, though. The characters are so completely *human* that the end result is far more erotic than any porn flick or victorian "anonymously written! " novel.