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Triptych
Susanna pursues sexual adventure online and finds an anonymous soul mate among the onanistic torsos. Is it possible he lives in her own building?
Leda’s first love brings tenderness, heartbreak and a powerful sexual awakening at the behest of Paul and Rachel —two very different best friends.
As time passes, some couples start to become like brother and sister. in others it is the other way around. For Aaron and Katherine, it’s a little more complicated.
Transgressive, sardonic, lyrical, comic; irresistibly erotic yet also romantic, Krissy Kneen’s writing has been acclaimed for its fearless honesty. In this suite of linked stories, she addresses taboos of all kinds with a subtle wit and an insistence on sexual pleasure.
Leda’s first love brings tenderness, heartbreak and a powerful sexual awakening at the behest of Paul and Rachel —two very different best friends.
As time passes, some couples start to become like brother and sister. in others it is the other way around. For Aaron and Katherine, it’s a little more complicated.
Transgressive, sardonic, lyrical, comic; irresistibly erotic yet also romantic, Krissy Kneen’s writing has been acclaimed for its fearless honesty. In this suite of linked stories, she addresses taboos of all kinds with a subtle wit and an insistence on sexual pleasure.
224 pages, Paperback
First published October 3, 2011
5 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Krissy Kneen
26 books73 followersKrissy Kneen has been shortlisted three times for the Queensland Premier's Literary awards. She is founding member of Eatbooks Inc and is the marketing and promotions officer at Avid Reader bookshop. Find out more about Krissy Kneen at www.eatbooks.com and www.avidreader.com.au
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 10, 2013
Originally posted at the Book of Good.
I bought Triptych at the 2012 Brisbane Writers Festival after hearing author Krissy Kneen on a panel about erotica, pornography, and censorship. In a world where discussing sex and pornography in public is usually frowned upon, it was a refreshing hour of discussion.
I was intrigued, and also enjoyed the idea of literary pornography (who was it who said ‘”erotica” just means “porn that works for me”‘?). Generally speaking, my only reactions to sex scenes in books before had been detached curiosity (for sexy plot points to keep the story going) or giggles (for the really bad ones – we’ve all read one of those).
Triptych contains a lot of sex; in fact, it’s mostly sex. Overall, though, it’s something more than just smut, despite the conspicuously NSFW cover (a slightly chastened image of Hokusai’s 1814 painting The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, which you should not Google at work).
The first novella, Susanna, follows a beautiful, but isolated, woman as she discovers an outlet for her sexual urges: Chatroulette. The titular character gets off on watching anonymous men do the same (which, in my brief experience, is pretty much all that happens on Chatroulette). Eventually, though, she strikes up a fairly one-sided relationship with one of her ‘onanistic torsos’, who she gradually comes to realise lives in the same apartment building as she.
This novella introduces the reader to the world of Triptych, where (fairly) well-adjusted characters are revealed to have sexual tastes which could be described as ‘kinky’, or perhaps even ‘deviant’. Susanna comes across companionship, acceptance, and possibly love – through essentially masturbating with strangers online.
The second novella, The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, is the one the author warned me about when I was getting my copy signed. It follows Leda as she goes through puberty and a sexual awakening, eventually becoming the lover of Paul, her lifelong companion. Paul, it is soon revealed, is a German shepherd.
Stepping back for a moment, the first part of the Fisherman’s Wife follows fairly common themes. A girl is growing up into a young woman; she is innocent and naive; she falls into a sexual relationship with a knowing male. It’s almost secondary that the male in this case is a dog. Though Kneen describes the carnality thoroughly, for Leda herself, it’s all about love.
Leda meets a girl who shares her tastes in lovers, and together they experiment with horses, and, yes, an octopus. One of my favourite parts of Triptych is when Leda’s new friend Rachel expresses a desire to have sex with Paul. Suddenly, it’s a teenage love triangle, with the familiar themes of jealousy, resentment, and revenge. It reminded me of stories where Girl 1 steals Girl 2′s boyfriend. I always wondered – what does the boyfriend think about this? Kneen cleverly sidesteps that: the boyfriend is a dog, and doesn’t think about it. Again, beyond the confronting bestiality aspect, it’s quite a tender and heartfelt coming of age story.
As the novella goes on, the sex scenes become increasingly bizarre and, probably, physically impossible. Leda’s foray into the octopus’s rockpools was particularly surreal. I really liked that the reader is drawn in by Kneen’s beautiful and well-executed prose. There is an atmosphere of peace, through the familiarity of the underlying stories and the realism of the characters. Then, almost without warning, we’re in Bestiality Town.
The ending, however, reminds us that despite the backdrop, the real theme here is human connection. Leda and Rachel become friends and lovers, connecting through their shared desires. It’s squicky, sure, but it’s also Kneen’s quiet reminder not to judge people too harshly by their sexual preferences.
Speaking of people, the third and, perhaps, weakest novella, Romulus and Remus, is from the point of view of one of Susanna’s ‘torsos’: Aaron. He’s been married for thirty years, and his sex life is not what it once was (which is why he spends his evenings on Chatroulette). The reader is only occasionally reminded that Aaron and his wife are also brother and sister.
This is another familiar story – a marriage becomes sexless and cold – complicated by the addition of some taboo arrangement. The sister, also dissatisfied with the relationship, has sex with a coworker in an alley, in some of Triptych‘s more vanilla sex scenes. I felt like Romulus and Remus is Kneen’s nod to straight-up pornography; with the incest angle played down (when it comes to physical sex, anyway), it’s just no-strings f*cking. Either way, the sex, as well as the incest angle, is an aside to the theme of this novella, and of Triptych as a whole.
It’s all about love.
Triptych reminds us that sex is not an unusual act. Animals do it all the time. Humans are animals too, after all, and we all do it in our own ways. Triptych describes (in sticky detail) some of the unusual – or unnatural – ways to have sex; but it also shows that, for humans, sex can be a part of love. On the surface, Triptych seems to be a simple, gross-out exploration of unnatural sex. But it’s actually about what brings people together: we have empathy, consideration, acceptance. The capacity to build a life together, to feel happiness, to feel love.
I bought Triptych at the 2012 Brisbane Writers Festival after hearing author Krissy Kneen on a panel about erotica, pornography, and censorship. In a world where discussing sex and pornography in public is usually frowned upon, it was a refreshing hour of discussion.
I was intrigued, and also enjoyed the idea of literary pornography (who was it who said ‘”erotica” just means “porn that works for me”‘?). Generally speaking, my only reactions to sex scenes in books before had been detached curiosity (for sexy plot points to keep the story going) or giggles (for the really bad ones – we’ve all read one of those).
Triptych contains a lot of sex; in fact, it’s mostly sex. Overall, though, it’s something more than just smut, despite the conspicuously NSFW cover (a slightly chastened image of Hokusai’s 1814 painting The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, which you should not Google at work).
The first novella, Susanna, follows a beautiful, but isolated, woman as she discovers an outlet for her sexual urges: Chatroulette. The titular character gets off on watching anonymous men do the same (which, in my brief experience, is pretty much all that happens on Chatroulette). Eventually, though, she strikes up a fairly one-sided relationship with one of her ‘onanistic torsos’, who she gradually comes to realise lives in the same apartment building as she.
This novella introduces the reader to the world of Triptych, where (fairly) well-adjusted characters are revealed to have sexual tastes which could be described as ‘kinky’, or perhaps even ‘deviant’. Susanna comes across companionship, acceptance, and possibly love – through essentially masturbating with strangers online.
The second novella, The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, is the one the author warned me about when I was getting my copy signed. It follows Leda as she goes through puberty and a sexual awakening, eventually becoming the lover of Paul, her lifelong companion. Paul, it is soon revealed, is a German shepherd.
Stepping back for a moment, the first part of the Fisherman’s Wife follows fairly common themes. A girl is growing up into a young woman; she is innocent and naive; she falls into a sexual relationship with a knowing male. It’s almost secondary that the male in this case is a dog. Though Kneen describes the carnality thoroughly, for Leda herself, it’s all about love.
Leda meets a girl who shares her tastes in lovers, and together they experiment with horses, and, yes, an octopus. One of my favourite parts of Triptych is when Leda’s new friend Rachel expresses a desire to have sex with Paul. Suddenly, it’s a teenage love triangle, with the familiar themes of jealousy, resentment, and revenge. It reminded me of stories where Girl 1 steals Girl 2′s boyfriend. I always wondered – what does the boyfriend think about this? Kneen cleverly sidesteps that: the boyfriend is a dog, and doesn’t think about it. Again, beyond the confronting bestiality aspect, it’s quite a tender and heartfelt coming of age story.
As the novella goes on, the sex scenes become increasingly bizarre and, probably, physically impossible. Leda’s foray into the octopus’s rockpools was particularly surreal. I really liked that the reader is drawn in by Kneen’s beautiful and well-executed prose. There is an atmosphere of peace, through the familiarity of the underlying stories and the realism of the characters. Then, almost without warning, we’re in Bestiality Town.
The ending, however, reminds us that despite the backdrop, the real theme here is human connection. Leda and Rachel become friends and lovers, connecting through their shared desires. It’s squicky, sure, but it’s also Kneen’s quiet reminder not to judge people too harshly by their sexual preferences.
Speaking of people, the third and, perhaps, weakest novella, Romulus and Remus, is from the point of view of one of Susanna’s ‘torsos’: Aaron. He’s been married for thirty years, and his sex life is not what it once was (which is why he spends his evenings on Chatroulette). The reader is only occasionally reminded that Aaron and his wife are also brother and sister.
This is another familiar story – a marriage becomes sexless and cold – complicated by the addition of some taboo arrangement. The sister, also dissatisfied with the relationship, has sex with a coworker in an alley, in some of Triptych‘s more vanilla sex scenes. I felt like Romulus and Remus is Kneen’s nod to straight-up pornography; with the incest angle played down (when it comes to physical sex, anyway), it’s just no-strings f*cking. Either way, the sex, as well as the incest angle, is an aside to the theme of this novella, and of Triptych as a whole.
It’s all about love.
Triptych reminds us that sex is not an unusual act. Animals do it all the time. Humans are animals too, after all, and we all do it in our own ways. Triptych describes (in sticky detail) some of the unusual – or unnatural – ways to have sex; but it also shows that, for humans, sex can be a part of love. On the surface, Triptych seems to be a simple, gross-out exploration of unnatural sex. But it’s actually about what brings people together: we have empathy, consideration, acceptance. The capacity to build a life together, to feel happiness, to feel love.
April 13, 2017
Disclaimer: I bought this book at a Chapters (Think B&N in Canada) with real money I really earned.
Review: It's all about consent. That's what one of the characters says in the second vignette piece in the book. It's all about consent. Right and wrong have no place in this book. Your moral compass is unwanted and unnecessary. Here it's just about the consent of the participants. Be they animals, siblings or a co-worker in a dark alley.
This book is comprised of 3 connected vignettes which detail stories of unconventional love and desire in the fullest detail. Each is titled after the classic art piece it is modelled after and delves into levels of taboo sexual behavior with a depth, sensitivity and insight rarely offered. This is not porn. This is a book about love. And the dirtiest book I've read in a long long time. It takes balls to not only write about these topics, but to do so in a way that makes the reader invest in these unconventional relationships despite the taboo discussed. When Paul (a German Shepard) dies, I teared up as his human lover mourned him, when Katherine discusses the loss of passion in her sexual relationship with her brother, I felt her pain like a tangible thing.
I have to wonder how this book made it past the censors on Amazon or onto the shelves of a mainstream bookstore. I'm thrilled it did. It's rare that I can pick up a book, flip to any page and blush, and then do it again, and again. By the third random flip, I knew I had to buy this.
Susanna and the Elders -
In this piece, Susanna is born into a deaf family, and although she herself can hear and speak, she comes to relish the silence of her childhood. The imagery of sound and it's affect on Susanna's state of mind is phenomenal. As lyrical as poetry but sensual and evocative. And we haven't even hit the dirty stuff yet. This first vignette is relatively tame (considering the rest of the book), delving into the addiction of internet sex chat rooms and videos.
The art chosen for this piece is important. The woman (Susanna) is nearly naked but the men are fully clothed. The character Susanna finds the woman's exposure unsettling and later, during her internet chats, she refuses to turn on her webcam, sticking to the shadows to speak to the men and women she meets but refusing to expose herself. Even with her online love interest she remains unseen and unheard.
It's only when she's completely and physically exposed in her desire that she's able to surrender and find love.
The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife -
Leda (named after the Greek Myth of Leda and the Swan) is an innocent young girl who sees bodies as ways to express affection. When her German Shepard, Paul, humps the sheets of her bed, all she knows is that it makes him feel good and that this is a good thing. As she gets older and discovers what sex is, her love for Paul takes a sexual turn. At school, Leda meets a girl who doesn't fit in, but the two hit it off, becoming friends in their discussion and curiosity about sex. This too becomes sexual when Leda and Rachel spend the weekend alone at Rachel's uncle's farm. Yes, I said farm. As in with animal in a barn. You see where I'm going here?
This story is filled with the normal emotions and longing of a girl during her sexual coming of age. Jealousy, adoration, devotion, curiosity, experimentation. It just happens that all these things happen in a bestial and lesbian context. But as Rachel says, it's all about consent. In the minds of these girls, the animals are giving consent, the girls simply offer the opportunity and the animals make the decision. It isn't until years later when Paul is dead and Rachel is no longer a part of her life that Leda ventures into non-con. Can sea life consent? If it's not a mammal, can it understand Leda's mammilion invitation?
Leda's story becomes about sensation. The feeling of the cold water on her naked flesh and the strange caress of an Octopus (yes, you read that right). When Rachel returns to her life the realization that she had turned her back on her pack, her human lover and herself due to petty jealousy, something the animals never succumb to, she is overwhelmed by the desire to put her zoo family back together. Then, Rachel suggests they go online to find other people like them... to an internet chat room...
Romulus & Remus -
Aaron is addicted to internet porn. Despite the naked body of his devoted love/sister lying in the next room, he finds himself in chatrooms nightly, falling in love with one woman and watching the mating rituals of a young zoo family. He finds comfort, companionship and distraction in the images before him. Men and women just as broken and lonely as him. His marriage to the woman he's loved since he was born with an adoration that overwhelmed his young heart is stalled, flaccid.
She too feels this and falls into depression over the mundaneness of their life together and her job. While he finds his online, she has an affair with a co-worker. Affair might be a misnomer, a ravaging? Can the siblings find their way back together, to be as close as the wild twins Romulus & Remus suckling from the same wolven teet? Can their love overcome the day to day of married life? Perhaps a little internet exhibitionism and anonymous admission of their familial sin will renew the taboo rush which first brought them together.
Review: It's all about consent. That's what one of the characters says in the second vignette piece in the book. It's all about consent. Right and wrong have no place in this book. Your moral compass is unwanted and unnecessary. Here it's just about the consent of the participants. Be they animals, siblings or a co-worker in a dark alley.
This book is comprised of 3 connected vignettes which detail stories of unconventional love and desire in the fullest detail. Each is titled after the classic art piece it is modelled after and delves into levels of taboo sexual behavior with a depth, sensitivity and insight rarely offered. This is not porn. This is a book about love. And the dirtiest book I've read in a long long time. It takes balls to not only write about these topics, but to do so in a way that makes the reader invest in these unconventional relationships despite the taboo discussed. When Paul (a German Shepard) dies, I teared up as his human lover mourned him, when Katherine discusses the loss of passion in her sexual relationship with her brother, I felt her pain like a tangible thing.
I have to wonder how this book made it past the censors on Amazon or onto the shelves of a mainstream bookstore. I'm thrilled it did. It's rare that I can pick up a book, flip to any page and blush, and then do it again, and again. By the third random flip, I knew I had to buy this.
Susanna and the Elders -
In this piece, Susanna is born into a deaf family, and although she herself can hear and speak, she comes to relish the silence of her childhood. The imagery of sound and it's affect on Susanna's state of mind is phenomenal. As lyrical as poetry but sensual and evocative. And we haven't even hit the dirty stuff yet. This first vignette is relatively tame (considering the rest of the book), delving into the addiction of internet sex chat rooms and videos.
The art chosen for this piece is important. The woman (Susanna) is nearly naked but the men are fully clothed. The character Susanna finds the woman's exposure unsettling and later, during her internet chats, she refuses to turn on her webcam, sticking to the shadows to speak to the men and women she meets but refusing to expose herself. Even with her online love interest she remains unseen and unheard.
It's only when she's completely and physically exposed in her desire that she's able to surrender and find love.
The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife -
Leda (named after the Greek Myth of Leda and the Swan) is an innocent young girl who sees bodies as ways to express affection. When her German Shepard, Paul, humps the sheets of her bed, all she knows is that it makes him feel good and that this is a good thing. As she gets older and discovers what sex is, her love for Paul takes a sexual turn. At school, Leda meets a girl who doesn't fit in, but the two hit it off, becoming friends in their discussion and curiosity about sex. This too becomes sexual when Leda and Rachel spend the weekend alone at Rachel's uncle's farm. Yes, I said farm. As in with animal in a barn. You see where I'm going here?
This story is filled with the normal emotions and longing of a girl during her sexual coming of age. Jealousy, adoration, devotion, curiosity, experimentation. It just happens that all these things happen in a bestial and lesbian context. But as Rachel says, it's all about consent. In the minds of these girls, the animals are giving consent, the girls simply offer the opportunity and the animals make the decision. It isn't until years later when Paul is dead and Rachel is no longer a part of her life that Leda ventures into non-con. Can sea life consent? If it's not a mammal, can it understand Leda's mammilion invitation?
Leda's story becomes about sensation. The feeling of the cold water on her naked flesh and the strange caress of an Octopus (yes, you read that right). When Rachel returns to her life the realization that she had turned her back on her pack, her human lover and herself due to petty jealousy, something the animals never succumb to, she is overwhelmed by the desire to put her zoo family back together. Then, Rachel suggests they go online to find other people like them... to an internet chat room...
Romulus & Remus -
Aaron is addicted to internet porn. Despite the naked body of his devoted love/sister lying in the next room, he finds himself in chatrooms nightly, falling in love with one woman and watching the mating rituals of a young zoo family. He finds comfort, companionship and distraction in the images before him. Men and women just as broken and lonely as him. His marriage to the woman he's loved since he was born with an adoration that overwhelmed his young heart is stalled, flaccid.
She too feels this and falls into depression over the mundaneness of their life together and her job. While he finds his online, she has an affair with a co-worker. Affair might be a misnomer, a ravaging? Can the siblings find their way back together, to be as close as the wild twins Romulus & Remus suckling from the same wolven teet? Can their love overcome the day to day of married life? Perhaps a little internet exhibitionism and anonymous admission of their familial sin will renew the taboo rush which first brought them together.
Read
August 7, 2022Eric… what did I just read?
November 19, 2011
Click here for my full review at Book Thingo.
This anthology is not for readers with a weak stomach for pushing sexual boundaries in fiction. The stories are challenging and absurd, the relationships unconventional, almost as if the author is daring us to keep reading.
Kneen writes beautifully, and she lures the reader into these stories that read like they should be easy and acceptable and lovely. Too late, you realise you’re trapped in this quagmire of difficult questions around the ethics, maybe even the morality, of sexual desire in its (as society sees it) extremes, of love and its boundaries and constraints, and of consent. And yet at the end of it all, I just felt...dissatisfied.
Who might enjoy it: Readers with a dirty mind and a penchant for the absurd
Who might not enjoy it: Animals
A review copy of this book was generously provided by the publisher.
This anthology is not for readers with a weak stomach for pushing sexual boundaries in fiction. The stories are challenging and absurd, the relationships unconventional, almost as if the author is daring us to keep reading.
Kneen writes beautifully, and she lures the reader into these stories that read like they should be easy and acceptable and lovely. Too late, you realise you’re trapped in this quagmire of difficult questions around the ethics, maybe even the morality, of sexual desire in its (as society sees it) extremes, of love and its boundaries and constraints, and of consent. And yet at the end of it all, I just felt...dissatisfied.
Who might enjoy it: Readers with a dirty mind and a penchant for the absurd
Who might not enjoy it: Animals
A review copy of this book was generously provided by the publisher.
Read
January 8, 2017Well, hello! Toto has left the building and I'll never look at him the same way again, and we sure as hell are not in Kansas anymore. I've been wanting to read something new, out of my comfort zone and something that would stretch me as a lover of books. Without more than a cursory glance at the back cover blurb, I picked up Kneen's Triptych (I'd recently read and loved her memoir, 'Affection'). Let's just say that the mission to stretch has been achieved and then some.
I love it when a book surprises me and that weird, kinda awkward sensation of not being able to put it down, regardless of whether I'm attracted or repelled. I was both with this collection of three, connected, short, erotic stories.
I'd rate it, but having not read anything quite like this before, I am struggling to come up with a benchmark. I will say, this book is not for the faint of heart, squeamish or anyone not open to pushing through some heavy duty taboos. And that's all I have to say about that. :-)
I love it when a book surprises me and that weird, kinda awkward sensation of not being able to put it down, regardless of whether I'm attracted or repelled. I was both with this collection of three, connected, short, erotic stories.
I'd rate it, but having not read anything quite like this before, I am struggling to come up with a benchmark. I will say, this book is not for the faint of heart, squeamish or anyone not open to pushing through some heavy duty taboos. And that's all I have to say about that. :-)
November 27, 2018
Krissy Kneen is my favourite writer of erotic literature. Her books pose real questions about the ethics of the erotic, but never by asking them outright. She shows you something real and beautiful and you're so taken by the compassion and empathy she shows for her characters that you question your stance on things you've always considered normal. This is totally what the best literature does. Her writing is lush and full bodied and sumptuous. When she writes about taboo sexual concepts she gives them and their agents dignity and respect. She guides you through the experience of reading with expert care. She's like the best sexual mentor ever.
June 7, 2012
For what it was, it was totally excellent. I was totally immersed and totally repelled. But I skipped certain parts that were too much, which I guess is a testament to the author's mad skillz!
Read
August 3, 2021Wow. Ok. I can’t rate this. This book doesn’t toe the line of propriety, it does a triple backflip over it. This is the kind of taboo that would get the book banned from Amazon and people arrested in real life. I don’t think I’m a prude, but yeah wow. Like, take the cover literally. Yeah.
That said, it was beautifully written. Really gorgeous writing. Normally I’d seek out the authors backlist with writing like this but I don’t think I’m brave enough.
That said, it was beautifully written. Really gorgeous writing. Normally I’d seek out the authors backlist with writing like this but I don’t think I’m brave enough.
December 10, 2019
Awful. Didn't even finish it. Can't remember the last time I didn't finish a book.
Unerotic in every way, tedious and appallingly bad writing.
Unerotic in every way, tedious and appallingly bad writing.
April 29, 2021
Completely effing depraved. Excellent!
September 7, 2015
Having seen Krissy Kneen speak eloquently, fearlessly, and charmingly at the Brisbane Writers Festival on Saturday 5th September, I decided to do the scary thing and purchase Triptych, knowing full well what it contained. And I can't quite believe it, but I kind of... loved it.
Not the more objectionable parts, that is -- I'm still not keen on bestiality or incest, or Chatroulette for that matter -- but the writing was beautiful. The sex between human characters was exciting and arousing, the thoughts and descriptions of character's inner lives was never unrealistic, and overall I felt sad once I'd finished reading. There was so much love between the characters in these stories that I couldn't help but understand them all, and appreciate being shown into their worlds. Krissy Kneen managed to make the most shocking things if not acceptable, then at least understandable as additional facets of these characters' sexualities.
I expected to be horrified and disgusted, and while there was a little bit of horror and disgust at certain points, overall I was quite delighted by reading Triptych.
It ain't for everyone -- uh, definitely not -- but for those of us who enjoy the voyeuristic approach to events outside our usual lives and expectations, this is a great, and beautiful, book.
Not the more objectionable parts, that is -- I'm still not keen on bestiality or incest, or Chatroulette for that matter -- but the writing was beautiful. The sex between human characters was exciting and arousing, the thoughts and descriptions of character's inner lives was never unrealistic, and overall I felt sad once I'd finished reading. There was so much love between the characters in these stories that I couldn't help but understand them all, and appreciate being shown into their worlds. Krissy Kneen managed to make the most shocking things if not acceptable, then at least understandable as additional facets of these characters' sexualities.
I expected to be horrified and disgusted, and while there was a little bit of horror and disgust at certain points, overall I was quite delighted by reading Triptych.
It ain't for everyone -- uh, definitely not -- but for those of us who enjoy the voyeuristic approach to events outside our usual lives and expectations, this is a great, and beautiful, book.
June 29, 2015
THIS WAS AMAZING!
*hits capslock*
So freaking amazing. So brilliantly written, ruthlessly intelligent, voraciously sexual. Everything in fact I expect from erotica and especially want from a female writer of erotica. Yes, it was challenging at times and then again, not nearly as confronting or alarming as I feared. But then very little tends to shock me on the page. Mostly I was just cheering my head off, so ridiculously delighted to find a female writer of erotica thoroughly unapologetic about putting taboos on the page and doing it so damned well into the bargain. Not a single stupid word, not a single clunky phrase, not a single cringeworthy reaction.
It was flawless. I loved it. I am now going to read everything else Krissy Kneen has ever published.
And yes, I read this all in one go.
*hits capslock*
So freaking amazing. So brilliantly written, ruthlessly intelligent, voraciously sexual. Everything in fact I expect from erotica and especially want from a female writer of erotica. Yes, it was challenging at times and then again, not nearly as confronting or alarming as I feared. But then very little tends to shock me on the page. Mostly I was just cheering my head off, so ridiculously delighted to find a female writer of erotica thoroughly unapologetic about putting taboos on the page and doing it so damned well into the bargain. Not a single stupid word, not a single clunky phrase, not a single cringeworthy reaction.
It was flawless. I loved it. I am now going to read everything else Krissy Kneen has ever published.
And yes, I read this all in one go.
February 8, 2016
Using the taboo to tantalise, Krissy Kneen's Triptych presents an erotic exploration of the dark, wild and voracious spaces of female sexuality. A very enjoyable read, to put it euphemistically, I would avoid approaching this book as I did: as a traditional plot/character central story, to consume from start to finish and come out having learned something. It is essentially well-written, interesting porn, and because I tried to read it as something weightier, I left a little disappointed. While Kneen writes with clear fluency, there is not much to this book in the way of story, so I would not open it with the traditional narrative mindset of following characters through the fulfillment of arc. Still, Triptych is fun, sexy and compelling, as well as refreshing in its inclusion of alternative play.
March 25, 2012
A caveat: This is not the sort of book I would usually choose to read. I was chairing a panel that Kneen was on at the Perth Writer's Festival.
This book explores and blows apart some pretty deep-seated taboos around sex, sexuality and eroticism in three linked stories. To be frank, most of them left me feeling deeply uncomfortable (which is why only the three stars). But Kneen writes so beautifully and intelligently that you cannot stop reading, however much you feel you might like to look away. She won't let you.
Not for the faint-hearted or close-minded, but definitely worth a read. Kneen is a writer to watch out for.
This book explores and blows apart some pretty deep-seated taboos around sex, sexuality and eroticism in three linked stories. To be frank, most of them left me feeling deeply uncomfortable (which is why only the three stars). But Kneen writes so beautifully and intelligently that you cannot stop reading, however much you feel you might like to look away. She won't let you.
Not for the faint-hearted or close-minded, but definitely worth a read. Kneen is a writer to watch out for.
July 17, 2012
Krissie is a local Brisbane writer who pushes the sexual boundaries. This book contains three cleverly intertwined erotic stories. As other reviewers have noted, it's not for the squeamish or prudish reader. I'm not even sure that some of the sex is feasible (read it and see). The second story stretches the imagination to its limits. However, it's beautifully written and I enjoy her work.
July 5, 2012
This book freaked me out! It was confronting and bizarre. Hard to think that people live like this, but even harder to think that someone could write about it. If you want to be aroused in a bad way, read the book.
February 3, 2014
Beautifully written, with an honest prose, this book certainly achieves it's authors goal, to create arousal from the taboo, the uncommon. She finds the beauty in the moral transgression, the sensuality that the forbidden and the dark desires have.
July 27, 2014
I'd read one of Kneen's stories before for a book club and stumbled across this in the library so thought I'd give it a try. Some of it was sexy, some of it was just a bit... off. But I did enjoy all her characters, even if their sexual fetishes were sometimes a bit perverse.
March 25, 2016
Confronting, sure, but sexy. The writing is vivid and brave. No holds barred erotica with an uncomfortable bent. Taboo subjects written with complete honesty. I was slightly perturbed at some of the content in Triptych but amazed once again by the talent of this writer. Bravo.
February 14, 2012
Triptych = tedium times three. It was a struggle to finish.
March 13, 2012
Listen to 4ZZZ Book Club's discussion with Krissy Kneen on Triptych and erotic fiction in general.
November 21, 2012
Work of a first rate literary artist.
November 1, 2014
A beautifully written, but challenging book that looks at love, lust and relationships through three vignettes, each with a different taboo at its centre.
November 30, 2013
See my review on my blog here http://www.ecstasyfiles.com/blog/revi...
April 29, 2015
3.5/5
A quick read with some mildly disturbing scenes, but I just couldn't look away could I?
A quick read with some mildly disturbing scenes, but I just couldn't look away could I?
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