Amazon.com Review
As one of the prose poems in here has it--Judith W. Steinbergh's wonderfully yeasty "May Day"--this is both "hot and earthy stew, epicurean soufflé" Touching Fire is a collection of verse and story from authors as diverse as Deena Metzger,Margaret Atwood,Tess Gallagher, Zora Neale Hurston, and more. The introduction takes great pains to insist that this collection is erotic, not pornographic, a distinction that has grown fuzzier over time. The book would still be banned in plenty of places; yet in its joy and celebration, it belongs in a picnic hamper when heading out for the trees with the one you love.
From Publishers Weekly
In an effort to extol contemporary women's diverse sexuality without being pornographic, the editors of this anthology have made sex a drag. The poems, novel excerpts and short fictions cover a wide range of erotic experiences--gay, straight, solitary--enjoyed by protagonists of varied race, age and body type. The sex is oral, genital, rectal, even bestial--a bull, a porpoise and a cat are featured in separate stories. Licking occurs frequently, most often in California; otherwise the writing is mixed in both subject and quality; the best are pieces by Kageyama, Olds, Ginghofer, Laux, Brant, Luria-Sukenick; the worst are amateurish. The whole, meant to celebrate "the inherent and life-affirming place of eros in women's lives," is as satisfying as a series of one-night stands.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
