Book Review: Susie Bright, editor, The Best American Erotica 2000
Shooting for 100 books, and trying to catch up on my reviews.
57) The Best America Erotica 2000, edited by Susie Bright, 295 pages
I recommend picking this one up, if you run across it.
One of the things I like best about good erotica is its ability to take a subject I don't find sexy in the slightest - cigars, say - and turn them into something incredibly arousing, as in "Sophie's Smoke," by Mark Stuertz.
Eva Morris' "Ideal Assex" is a story that I wish to God I had written but never could have - sharp, smart, and fucking nuclear hot. Seriously. This one's a keeper.
In "Two Cars in a Cornfield," William Harrison evokes the eternal yesterday of teenage lust in what was, for me, the most poignant and affecting story the volume had to offer.
"Fish Curry Rice" by Gina Kamani could have been stifling and overly political, with its story of the culture clash between a young Indian woman returning to the home country after being years in America and her traditional matchmaking aunt who is perpetually trying to set her up with eligible Indian men. It wasn't overwrought or depressing - it was lighthearted, humorous, and delightful, and at the same time tapped into an important truth about female nature.
Even such stories as Bob Vickery's "Calcutta," in which an affluent man offers his bed and his body to a homeless vet with no legs, or Ernie Conrick's "The Queen of Exit 17," where a married man has a series of sleazy encounters at a rather depressing roadside stop (Shyamalan fans keep your eyes open for the subtle kick at the end - What A Twist!) manage to transcend the confrontational nature of their subject matter. In this, the 2000 volume is superior to the 1993 version, where the unpleasantness was not offset enough by the stories themselves.
There are a couple of so-so offerings here, but they are far, far in the minority, and one man's goose is another's gander (or however the saying goes), so I won't complain over a matter of taste. All in all, a most worthy offering.
57) The Best America Erotica 2000, edited by Susie Bright, 295 pages
I recommend picking this one up, if you run across it.
One of the things I like best about good erotica is its ability to take a subject I don't find sexy in the slightest - cigars, say - and turn them into something incredibly arousing, as in "Sophie's Smoke," by Mark Stuertz.
Eva Morris' "Ideal Assex" is a story that I wish to God I had written but never could have - sharp, smart, and fucking nuclear hot. Seriously. This one's a keeper.
In "Two Cars in a Cornfield," William Harrison evokes the eternal yesterday of teenage lust in what was, for me, the most poignant and affecting story the volume had to offer.
"Fish Curry Rice" by Gina Kamani could have been stifling and overly political, with its story of the culture clash between a young Indian woman returning to the home country after being years in America and her traditional matchmaking aunt who is perpetually trying to set her up with eligible Indian men. It wasn't overwrought or depressing - it was lighthearted, humorous, and delightful, and at the same time tapped into an important truth about female nature.
Even such stories as Bob Vickery's "Calcutta," in which an affluent man offers his bed and his body to a homeless vet with no legs, or Ernie Conrick's "The Queen of Exit 17," where a married man has a series of sleazy encounters at a rather depressing roadside stop (Shyamalan fans keep your eyes open for the subtle kick at the end - What A Twist!) manage to transcend the confrontational nature of their subject matter. In this, the 2000 volume is superior to the 1993 version, where the unpleasantness was not offset enough by the stories themselves.
There are a couple of so-so offerings here, but they are far, far in the minority, and one man's goose is another's gander (or however the saying goes), so I won't complain over a matter of taste. All in all, a most worthy offering.