Slow Hand: Women Writing Erotica - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060165987 ISBN 13: 9780060165987

Publisher: Harpercollins, 1992

Synopsis

An anthology of twenty-one new erotic stories by women explores the unspoken fantasies of a broad range of lesbians and straight women whose real jobs range from bureaucrat to performance artist. 25,000 first printing. National ad/promo.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

The best of intentions motivated this collection of original erotic stories by and primarily for women. As editor Slung (Women's Wiles, 1979, etc.) explains in her introduction, she wanted to expand the genre on the high end, present fantasies enacted by real women (as opposed to airbrushed nymphets), combat contemporary prudishness, and...well, help women pursue better orgasms. However, in her effort to produce fresh material, Slung has also included a few strikingly unripe entries, like the bludgeoningly obvious ``Leaper,'' about two women who witness a suicide and then have sex, and ``The Footpath of Pink Roses,'' a rape vs. ravishment story that's politically correct to the point of ridiculousness. Things look up when pros like Sara Davidson take their turn. The author of Friends of the Opposite Sex (1984), etc., offers a frank and stimulating look at the sexual bending of a strong woman (``The Wager''), and Carolyn Banks's salt-sprayed tale of sexual initiation (``The Shame Girl'') is fine enough to hold its own outside the genre. Besides the unevenness, Slung's need to explain the meaning of her choices results in irritating pre-story exegeses; then she lets the authors also have a whack at explaining things once their stories end. It's enough to curl your toes. Someone should have told Slung to stop making sense. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

Stories about sex can have many goals, but erotica's prime raison d'etre is always to provoke "strong skin responses," in Slung's ( I Shudder at Your Touch ) apt phrase. This collection of 19 stories by and for women offers enough variety to stimulate virtually any taste. Each with a brief editor's foreword and author's note, the entries explore many nuances of sexuality, more than a few positions and some of the most daunting sexual issues there are. Represented are bisexuality, voyeurism, the line between violence and desired force ("to be made to do what I wanted to do," observes the woman narrating Lisa Tuttle's "The Story of No"), sex for love and sex for sex. The stories place context on a par with action, a different recipe than that of most erotica directed toward men. As reading experiences, some tales fare better than others. Carole Maso's "The American Woman in the Chinese Hat" attempts "an homage to . . . Robbe-Grillet, and the French Nouveau roman," while such stories as "Oh, Brother," by Bea Wilder, seem only recollections of sexual memories. Many readers will welcome the realism that informs most of these tales: protagonists who are aging, afraid, confused or aggressive, and who admit their failings as readily as they proclaim their desires. BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0060165987
• ISBN 13: 9780060165987
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 228
• Editor: Slung Michele