Sexual Healing - Softcover

Nelson, Jill

3.67

201 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0972456252 ISBN 13: 9780972456258

Publisher: Agate Bolden, 2003

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Now in paperback, the critically acclaimed Essence bestseller is a blistering satire of American gender, race, and economic relations. Sexual Healing starts by exploring a simple if sensational premise what would happen if two black businesswomen started a brothel that served up male sex workers hired and trained to meet black women’s most intimate needs? Jill Nelson uses this set-up as an opportunity to spin a comedy of outrageous manners for the 21st century in her inimitably uninhibited voice. The result is what Ebony called, A post-feminist fable of sexual empowerment that’s smart, explicit, and side-splittingly funny.”

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About the Author:

Jill Nelson is the author of the bestselling Volunteer Slavery, which won an American Book Award; Straight, No Chaser; and Finding Martha's Vineyard: African Americans at Home on an Island. She also edited the anthology Police Brutality. A regular contributor to USA Today and The Village Voice, her work has appeared in Essence, The New York Times, The Nation, and The New York Review of Books, among many other publications. She lives in New York City. Visit her website at www.jillnelson.com or e-mail her at ASistersSpa@aol.com.

From Publishers Weekly:

A brothel for women? Journalist Nelson, the author of several popular nonfiction books (Straight, No Chaser; etc.), offers a ribald take on the battle between the sexes and one heck of an entrepreneurial scheme, in her wickedly funny first novel. Lydia Beaucoup and Acey Allen are 40ish best friends living in Oakland who find themselves going in circles when it comes to dating and finding a satisfying relationship. After a gab session in which the two women fantasize about the ideal man, Lydia comes up with a startling solution: she proposes opening a brothel in which sexy black male prostitutes attend to the sexual needs of black women. Acey thinks she's joking, but Lydia is dead serious, and she asks for a sabbatical from her job as an ad copywriter to put the crazy plan into action. Nevada is the chosen location, and after getting a prostitution license, Lydia uses her own dates to begin recruiting prospective employees, starting with a sexy UPS guy named Odell, who becomes the de facto manager. Bizarrely, funding comes from the wife of a rich right-wing zealot who made a fortune selling arms, and the spa opens to rave reviews from the first wave of clients. Trouble surfaces when a conservative preacher on a family values kick gets wind of the project from a tabloid editor and tries to shut down the spa. Nelson has fun with her mischievous conceit, and there are more than a few hilarious scenes. The comedy is underpinned by her solid, convincing depiction of the friendship between Acey and Lydia, and an engaging, breezy style. The novel has its flaws-it's cluttered with secondary characters, and the conceit is stretched perilously thin at times-but it's a great read anyway, and a standout in the genre of African-American popular fiction.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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