erotica
Ok, so I know the title to this seems a little strange, but bear with me. I just finished reading Belinda by Anne Rice (writing as Anne Rampling). Now this was a book that was supposed to be an erotic novel in the vein of Lady C and such, not just smut. The basic premise is a painter and writer of children's books falls in love with a girl, and it is all about them, truth, art and love. the novel revolves around the painters journey and how his art changes due to her influence. Oh, and did I mention that she is 16 and he in his 40's? That is the hook, what draws you in, and I would likely say what gets it labeled erotic, a la Lolita, because most romance novels have more sex than this book. In fact, there is almost no mention of sex in the whole book, which threw me off at first as this was not what I was expecting, and I almost stopped reading as the novel was so different from what I had thought it would be. The strange thing is that once I accepted that, I got hooked, totally and completely, as in could not put it down, which for me is pretty rare. Considering how many books I read, something has to be damn impressive to draw me in like that. The characters were what drew me in, the change and growth, the art and what it meant to them. At one point I almost hated the main character, but in the end it just made him more real, more understandable. I don't think I can truly identify what made the book so excellent, and I am not sure that it really is. But, I know that in six months I am going to want to read it again just to see how lasting the impression is, and that I will most likely buy it, if only to remember the impression it made on me. Would someone else please, please go out and read this and tell me what they think, am I just nuts, or is it really worth reading? Because at this point I am still confused and unsure. If you had asked me just before I started the book, I would have told you it was erotic, it was supposed to be, and it was about a man falling in love with a sixteen year old, how could it not be? Yet, sixty pages in, I told Nicole I couldn't see why it was called erotic, it made no sense to me. Having finished it, now I don't know. It doesn't really have much sex, or anything you would normally classify as erotic, and yet in the end it was sensual and evocative, making you think about what is art, what is love, and the impression is truly erotic, but in a manner I still have trouble grasping. As I said, someone else please give it a try and tell me what they think, as it is a book I would dearly love to discuss with someone. I think the last book I read that had the same feel and effect on me was Abandon by Pico Iyer, which was again about two people falling in love and coming apart at the seams, and still trying to survive and understand each other. In fact, the parallels between the two are pretty amazing on some levels. Neither of these two books are my normal fare by any stretch, and now I wonder how the hell I am supposed to find anything more like them, any suggestions? I hope these ramblings made at least a little sense and gave you all something to think about, for those of you who skipped the middle bits as boring and are just reading the last line, my apologies for rambling.