Anonymous Sex
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
27 Authors. 27 Stories. No Names Attached.
A bold collection of stories about sex that leaves you guessing who wrote what.
Bestselling novelists Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan present an elegant, international anthology of erotica that explores the diverse spectrum of desire, written by winners of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, PEN Awards, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Edgar Award, and more. There are stories of sexual obsession and sexual love, of domination and submission. There’s revenge sex, unrequited sex, funny sex, tortured sex, fairy tale sex, and even sex in the afterlife.
While the authors are listed in alphabetical order at the beginning of the book, none of the stories are attributed, providing readers with a glimpse into an uninhibited landscape of sexuality as explored by twenty-seven of today’s finest authors.
Featuring Robert Olen Butler, Catherine Chung, Trent Dalton, Heidi W. Durrow, Tony Eprile, Louise Erdrich, Jamie Ford, Julia Glass, Peter Godwin, Hillary Jordan, Rebecca Makkai, Valerie Martin, Dina Nayeri, Chigozie Obioma, Téa Obreht, Helen Oyeyemi, Mary-Louise Parker, Victoria Redel, Jason Reynolds, S.J. Rozan, Meredith Talusan, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Jeet Thayil, Paul Theroux, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Edmund White.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jordan (Mudbound) and Tan (Sarong Party Girls) assemble a literary erotica anthology with a coy twist: individual stories aren't attributed, allowing readers to guess which of the decorated contributors—including Louise Erdrich, Helen Oyeyemi, and Edmund White—wrote what. The hush-hush conceit is fun, though it may lead readers to expect these 27 stories to be more scandalous than they are; taboos are largely unbroken and too few authors go all in on sexiness. The self-consciously meta "Posseeblay" sees married writers insisting that "nobody ever writes real sex," as if "boring and awkward and mundane and disappointing" sex weren't abundant in contemporary fiction. "En Suite" offers a stronger portrayal of clumsy sex, with a drunken kiss between best friends leading to a funny, tender tale, but the oddly retrograde "LVIII Times a Year" tries for a slapstick approach and falls flat. The writers who embrace erotic fantasy fare better: standouts include "History Lesson," a BDSM story that builds real anticipation in few pages; the steamy fairy tale "Rapunzel, Rapunzel"; and the unabashedly dreamy "Find Me." Noteworthy is the international scope of the stories' settings, which gives rise to one of the highlights in the enigmatic, Hong Kong–set "Hard at Play." Though uneven, there's plenty to make this worthwhile.
