Book Review - Erotomania: A Romance

I was going to title this review "Not Your Mother's Romance" but I decided to refrain.

The great Liz Maverick with her Maverick Reading Smackdown
got me thinking about the fact that the last book that I read by a man that wasn't non fiction was The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Why haven't I read more fiction by men? Somehow without realizing it, but my fiction reading has become limited to women. I read women's fiction, mysteries and thrillers written by women, romance written by women. Well, I decided that needed to change so I ordered a copy of Erotomania: A Romance by Francis Levy.



Now I should mention that I know Francis slightly. He's the co-director of The Philoctetes Center, where I seem to spend a great deal of my free time. So in a way, I was kind of reluctant to read the book. What if I didn't like it? This is the dilemma that comes up a lot when I'm reading fiction by friends and acquaintances. You end up doing that old actor's trick of giving generic compliments like "You were so brave!" or "I could never do what you just did." Or pretending that you are just speechless from their performance in the good way.



I'm happy to say that I didn't have that problem with Erotomania: A Romance. At first I was trepidatious. I mean come on, there are chimps screwing on the cover! What had I gotten myself into? Yes, they are cute Bonobo chimps, who are apparently one of the few species to have sex face to face besides humans, but still they are chimps screwing! What would the women over at Smart Bitches think? Hmm! And while I've read erotica and erotic romance by the likes of Susie Bright, Rachel Kramer Bussell, Emma Holly, Susan Johnson and a host of others, I've never really gotten into Henry Miller (I skimmed the Tropic of Cancer in high school before moving over to Anais Nin). I'm also a little wary of books where the couples screw for pages and pages, and then all of a sudden we're supposed to believe they are in love (As you can tell I've read way too many Harlequin Blazes that end up that way).



The plot in a nutsell: James Moran has been having anonymous sex with a woman, sex so intense that it produces temporary amnesia afterwards. The sex is so intense that he can't think of anything but when the next encounter will be. However, increasingly, James wants to have a real relationship with this woman, whose name he learns is Monica. Erotomania: A Romance is his journey towards realizing that dream. And it is a romance, make no mistake. Once they get past the sex, they manage to forge a modern relationship that anyone can recognize and sympathize with. Everything from arguing over their favorite TV shows, to where to have dinner.



Levy adds a modern twist to this tale. The sex between the two of them is so explosive that they have to move into a concrete bunker in order to avoid disturbing their neighbors, leading one to wonder if it is possible for two people to be labeled a lethal weapon! James meets Bill, a homeless gourmet chef after being beaten up, in a Greyhound bus station. He takes him home, and gives him shelter. In return, Bill cooks for him. For awhile they live in a strange menage a trois of food and reality television. There are also sessions with General Shapiro, a rather odd relationship counselor, as James and Monica try to navigate the new territory of their relationship in a way that they both can live with.



What about the sex I can hear you ask. Well there is a great deal of it, particularly in the beginning of the book, and it is incredibly raw and animalistic, which is actually where the relationship is between the two main characters. We're not talking ten page sex scenes here but it is rather graphic and some people might be put off by some of the stuff that these two get up too. This is not making love in any sense of the word. All the words are used (and you know what words I'm talking about).



Levy lightens the mood with not just a great deal of humor (I laughed out loud several times while reading the book on the subway which is rare for me) and thoughtfulness. Yes he throws in references to everything from Survivor to Jackson Pollack to Freud but it never comes across as pretentious or too 'lit fic' for the average reader who wouldn't know Rabelais from Raffi. The book isn't perfect. I found it hard to understand how Monica and James hooked up when he didn't know either her name or her phone number, nor could he remember her address. And at times the characters came across as a little self-absorbed.



The book is incredibly poignant as James talks about his love for Monica which has taken him completely by surprise. I enjoyed this book and I was sorry to leave Monica and James in the end but I closed the book feeling as if I had left two people with a happy ending. I look forward to seeing what Levy comes up with for his next book. If you are looking for something completely different, a look at modern relationships from a male point of view, and a well-written character study, then pick up Erotomania: A Romance.

September Book Recommendations

It's a new month, and I have more book recommendations for ya'll. I'm also very tired because I ended up having to write half of Saving Grace on TNT last night at work (check out Reward TV.com if you want to see what I wrote) since the assigned writer went home sick, meaning that for the third night in a row I didn't get home until after 1 in the morning. So I'm less than coherent today. Staying up that late you tend to get punch drunk after awhile. It's like you enter a fugue state. Plus I spent the weekend watching programs on Princess Diana. And I have three dance classes tonight. But don't cry for me Argentina, I will hopefully be more awake tomorrow.


My first book recommendation is Janet Mullany's Rules of Gentility. What a gorgeous cover and what a delightful book. I must confess I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book when I heard it described as Jane Austen meets Bridget Jones. And it was told in alternating first person POV's, but once I plunged in, I couldn't stop reading. Both the hero and the heroine are absolutely delightful and I didn't want to leave the world that Janet Mullany had created. I just wanted to live there reading about more delightful adventures of Inigo and Philomena. What wonderful Regency names! I totally pictures James McAvoy as Inigo while I was reading it, shades of Becoming Jane.



In the same vein, Lost in Austen, was a total treat. Written by Emma Campbell Webster, who only graduated from Oxford University a mere four years ago, Lost in Austen is a Jane Austen adventure that you create for yourself. The reader plays Elizabeth Bennett, and like other create your own adventure books, you can go in many different directions if you make the right or wrong choices. Even though I've read Pride and Prejudice numerous times (and watched the Colin Firth version even more times), I still made a few wrong choices that ended up getting me killed, and/or destitute. A fun way to spend a rainy afternoon with a cup of tea.

Now for something completey different, Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster. I read about this book on Cara Lockwood's blog, but I'd seen the book in the bookstore for awhile. If you're a fan of MTV's Daria, and like snarky, sarcastic, bitter humor, you will love this book. I read her first book, Bitter is the New Black, about what happened to her when she lost her high-powered corporate job and spent two years unemployed during which she auditioned for NBC's The Biggest Loser, and gained Bill Rancic from The Apprentice as a landlord. Maybe it's just me, but I just love the idea that she all of a sudden decided to get married solely in the hopes of getting great presents that she and her boyfriend could use like money. Reading this book was like finding my soul sister from another mother (and not just because we're both Scorpios!). Finally someone who is even more of a sarcastic bitch than I am.

This last book, Primo Time is by the renowned English actor Sir Antony Sher. Unlike Ian McKellan or Patrick Stewart, he's not as well known on these shores apart from his roles in Mrs. Brown (he played Disraeli) and Shakespeare in Love. But in England, he's performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company for over twenty years. I had the good fortune of seeing him play Richard III when I was in college, a performance I still remember because of the vividness and uniqueness of his portrayal. Primo Time is a book about the journey he took adapting Primo Levi's autobiography about his time in Auschwitz during WWII. The book is not just about the creative process that he went through adapting a book that seemed to defy adaptation, but also his own insecurities as an actor. During this time, he was suffering from incredible stage fright after being an actor for over 35 years. Anyone who has ever performed on stage can identify. Stage fright doesn't go away no matter how many years you perform, and it can get worse. Laurence Olivier suffered from severe stage fright in his later years as did Ian Holm. How he deals with it, as well as personal issues with his mother and dealing with living Primo's life on stage, make this book compelling reading.

Thanks for reading,

EKM

Book recommendation: Rejection, Romance, & Royalties

I just finished Laura Resnick's book Rejection, Romance and Royalties, and I can't recommend it enough. It should be on every writer's bookshelf, irrespective of what genre you write, along with Stephen King's book On Writing and any book by Carolyn See and Anne LaMott.

Laura reveals the gritty truth on what it's really like to be working writer, and it ain't all hearts and flowers. She deals with the years when she had a hard time selling, the frustrations of dealing with a new editor after being orphaned, how hard it can be to get those checks from your publisher, even with an agent.

But she also talks about the joy and satisfaction she gets from being a writer, not to mention the perks that can sometimes come your way (I so want to be invited to that sci-fi/fantasy conferene in Nantes!)

Off topic: I was squealing like a fan girl when I saw that the great Carole Nelson Douglas left me a comment on my blog after my post on POV. I have loved CND ever since I read my first Irene Adler novel.

The historical detail of late 19th century Europe of the books, not to mention the she has fleshed out a minor character from the Holmes canon into a living, breathing human capable of taking center stage is amazing. Anyone looking for a mystery novel set in fin de siecle Paris should pick up her Irene Adler novels.

I should clarify further on my post on POV. I'm not averse to novels that have third and first person POV. My first YA is partially narrated in first person POV but it's very limited. 3/4 of the book is in third person. I think if the first person narrator in Interpretation of Murder had been a more dynamic character, it might have made a difference. Still, I found it jarring when the author later narrated a scene from Stanton Younger in the third person, after having him narrate for most of the book.

Thanks for reading,

EKM