Lust
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
What if you could sleep with anyone in the world, just by thinking about it?
Michael Blasco, a young scientist, is waiting for the train when he spies a friend he fancies. Idly, he imagines Tony naked and an extraordinary thing happens – Tony strips there and then on the platform and offers himself in front of all onlookers. Horrified, Michael flees. But back home, Tony magically reappears. Then disappears, when Michael wishes him away.
Michael sets out to test the parameters of his new-found gift, rapidly calling up Billie Holiday, Johnny Weismuller, Lawrence of Arabia, Alexander the Great, Picassao, and even his younger self. The world is there for the taking and Michael runs the gamut of his fantasies. But what does he really want?
Reviews
'If Ryman's material is potentially shocking, the way he handles it is … completely disarming. Scenes of graphic erotic intensity are counterbalanced by humour and tenderness … Ryman's imagination is quite extraordinary, and he possesses the skills to make emotionally believable something that's completely fantastic' Independent
'This book isn't ultimately about sex, or lust, but rather about the life that lust creates. And there are some very important themes here: pornography and power, science and art, animal rights, human rights, slavery, genetics, love, free-will, desire, quantum physics and the possibility of parallel universes' Independent on Sunday
About the author
Geoff Ryman is the extraordinaarily talented author of hugely praised novels like THE CHILD GARDEN and WAS and, most recently, 253, the world’s first internet novel published to tremendeous acclaim in 1998.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Reality's got a hole in it." That's what runs through Michael Blasco's head when he discovers that he has the uncanny ability to bring his fantasies to life in this wacky, inspired third novel by Ryman (Was). The 38-year-old gay protagonist is a government scientist experimenting on baby chicks and has a flat in London's West End with Phil, his passionless boyfriend. While seething on a subway platform, he imagines the beefy trainer at his gym stripping naked right in front of him and poof it happens! Terrified at first, Michael quickly regains his composure and wills into action a series of characters like Tarzan and cartoon diva Taffy Duck; narcissistically, he also conjures a copy of himself. His reunion with a long-lost high school sweetheart nicknamed Bottles proves to be touching and funny, but his meeting with Mark, a victim of AIDS, turns sad when Mark rebuffs his plea to revive him. In an effort to inject passion into his stagnant relationship, Michael "calls up" a younger version of Phil paired with a younger version of himself. When this scheme backfires, he returns to the anonymous "speedy, functional sex" that has long sustained him. A night out with feisty Billie Holiday, passionate sex with Picasso and dalliances with Lawrence of Arabia on Viagra reinvigorate him and make for some funny, titillating reading, but as Michael's notebook of his wild adventures begins to overflow, the story's whimsical tone changes, revealing more of his true character as well as some particularly troublesome personal problems. Among them is a disturbing boyhood fixation on his father, which mutates into a wincingly unnerving incestuous sequence. Ryman's "careful-what-you-wish-for" message is artfully packaged in this quirky, offbeat, entertaining novel.
