Allegedly factual stories about sex involve a catch-22: if they have the appeal of fiction or fantasy, they sound too good to be credible. If they show disappointment for the characters or disappoint the reader, they are likely to be believed, but who wants to hear them?
The stories in this book are all crafted like good fiction, but they are plausible. They are also as varied as the stories in any “best-of” erotic anthology. There are “coming-out” stories about young women in high school or university, stories about long-term couples and about risky sex between women on the job. All are well-written, fast-paced, and most have happy endings.
The two funniest – and incidentally the most self-consciously told -- pieces are “Foxy and the Ridiculous Lesbian Orgy” by Allison Moon and “Guise and Dolls” by Allison Wonderland. In the former, the narrator organizes an orgy so that she will have material for a story. She addresses the reader about the relationship of “truth” to art:
“Now, I know what you’re thinking. If you construct the
context for a story, are you actually experiencing the story, or
just experiencing yourself experiencing the story, thus negating
the veracity of the experience? If it’s really happening but in an
artificial context, does it count as “true”? I’m a writer, these are
the things I think about. Nevertheless, I figured if the story had
enough hot dyke action, no one would really care if I pulled a
bit of a James Frey up on stage.
That says it all. Ultimately, it doesn’t seem to matter much whether all these stories happened exactly as they are told. The reader can only experience these adventures vicariously anyway. Several of the contributors are well-known writers of lesbian erotica, and they know how to seduce a reader.
These stories have the charm of fantasy, and just enough realistic detail to make them seem like documentaries. Every woman-loving woman should have a life this satisfying.
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