Can't Get Enough: Erotica for
Women
Edited by Tenille Brown
Cleis Press, 2014
“Too
much
is
never
enough”.
That's
the
title
Tenille
Brown
chose
for
her
introduction
to
this
anthology,
and
it
sums
up
the
theme
quite
nicely.
This
is
a
book
of
stories
about
sexual
insatiability,
about
lust
that
can't
be
denied
and
sometimes
can't
even
be
satisfied,
for
more
than
a
few
minutes
at
least.
The
characters
in
these
stories
get
plenty
of
sex,
plenty
of
pleasure,
sometimes
plenty
of
delicious
pain
as
well,
but
it's
never
sufficient.
How well do the tales in this volume explicate this theme? As usual,
some are more effective than others. At the top of my list is Preston
Avery's amazing “Won't Last the Week”. The narrator meets the
woman of his dreams at a party. They spend the night on the beach, so
entranced by one another that they forget to exchange phone numbers.
She isn't skinny like the girls I usually go for, like my ideal “on
paper” woman, but curved and soft and she fits me just right. Her
breasts are big with a delicious slope to them, and I know they will
overflow my grasp. I could bury my face in the valley between them
and never come up for air. I could have seconds and thirds and
fourths of her and die a gluttonous happy man. She does everything I
lead her into. I don't ask – words are still lost to us. The first
time I lower one of my hands to those gorgeous mounds, hidden between
a thin blue cotton shirt, she doesn't protest of push me away- she
arches into me, into my touch, and makes the most beautiful noise in
her throat. That moment, those moments, are all that I can feel. The
future is as unreal to me as a unicorn on the planet Saturn. That
place where names and phone numbers matter is at least a world away.
As the week goes on, dreams and fantasies of the lost woman consume
the narrator's life. Will he somehow manage to find her? Or will he
go mad with need and frustration? The beautiful urgency of this story
left me in wet wonder.
Another highly apt contribution is Kissa Starling's cautionary tale
“Blue Balls”. A young man too busy with his career to pursue a
relationship receives a pair of mysterious blue balls from the gypsy
he consults for advice. The balls provide instant orgasms, of such
intensity and delight that the protagonist soon finds himself
neglecting all other aspects of his life in the quest for ever
increasing pleasure.
“Before
They
Burn”
by
Beatrix
Ellroy
is
a
delicious
tale
of
power
and
surrender,
as
a
party
guest
teaches
the
hostess
in
the
kitchen
just
how
much
she
loves
to
be
dominated.
As
he
brings
her
down
from
her
orgasm
and
allows
her
to
take
the
cookies
from
the
oven,
he
tells
her:
“Next
time,
Orya,
I
will
take
my
time
with
you.”
In Giselle Renarde's exquisite “The Girl on Your Skin”, a lesbian
couple with an explicitly open relationship discover that the scent
of a casual lover on one of their bodies creates a virtual
three-some, kindling a whole new kind of desire.
The editor's own contribution, “Famous Last Words”, is notable
for its clever and insightful portrayal of “break up sex”. It's
not necessary to love someone, or even to like them, to be swept away
by lust for their bodies. In fact, one of the aspects of this entire
book that I particularly liked was the fact that not all its stories
end happily. Stupendous orgasms are not necessarily the key to long
term happiness.
On the other hand, they're not something to be rejected, either.
Given the title, I expected Ms. Brown's story to be the last in the
collection. However, that place belongs to Annabeth Leong's
incredibly perverse “Objects of Desire”. Once again, Ms. Leong
articulates sexual complexities that few other authors would even
recognize. This tale of shame, need and kitchen utensils is one of
the kinkiest – and most insightful – things I've read in months.
It made me squirm, which I have to believe was the author's
intention.
I've only mentioned the stories that particularly grabbed me, but
overall, Ms. Brown has assembled a solid collection of erotic
fiction, with considerable diversity in tone, content and gender
pairings. I believe this may be her first time editing an anthology.
She can afford to be proud of the result.
