Review: Erotic Fiction for Women

Slung, Michele, ed. Slow Hand: Women Writing Erotica. New York; HarpersCollinsPublishers, 1992.

Brought together by Editor Michele Slung as a collection of stories by women that focuses on teasing anticipation and gradually building sensation to appeal to women, Slow Hand includes a wide variety of characters of different ages and backgrounds and sexual orientations.

The stories show us how the mundane can hold the erotic, when we look for it, and how the exotic can be somehow familiar. They encompass many of the categories read on Literotica; non-consent, masturbation, exhibitionism, reluctance, group sex, mature, and lesbian. Told in a variety of formats; erotic memoir, an internal monologue directed at a character's shrink, a letter, present tense stories and past tense stories, they appeal in different ways.

Two of my favorite stories include The Shame Girl and Blue Feathers.

The Shame Girl by Carolyn Banks, is a lyrical low country legend of mer-folk and a painting. The story takes us on a journey through time, beginning in the present of an elderly woman whose daughter has come with her family to visit. They admire the painting, which was named The Shame Girl by the family's cook long ago and we are taken back to a party on a summer night when the girl, unknown to the party-goers, has swum out and is watching from the dark. As she treads water, she is visited by a figure, swimming around her and touching her. The story switches forward to a time when the main character told this tale to her roommate at college in a humorous interlude, describing the water as inky silk. This story has the life of legends which are born of the sea.

Blue Feathers by Anne Rhyd is at once carnal and magical. In this tale of a mid-western widow woman visiting her family during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, our heroine finds a little magic to speed her re-entry into life. She goes into a costume shop and decides to buy a mask but ends up with the dress, which goes with it. Feeling a little more daring, she sallies forth and runs, quite literally, into the man with the matching mask. As if outside of time, they retreat to his garden apartment in the French Quarter and affirm their lives in the age old tradition. Our heroine returns just in time to meet her niece at the appointed place with a mask mysteriously missing it's feathers.

Four other stories that have fascinated me over time include The Footpath of Pink Roses by Carol Lazare wherein a young woman thinks she is about to be raped and has rationalized it in her mind to the point where she is actually offended when she realizes the man is trying to mug her. Of course, things turn out for the best, in a way. The Story of No by Lisa Tuttle explores the fantasy of being freed from culpability through force. The main character goes out for a night of fun, just to look, and finds herself connecting with a young man who, unfortunately, takes no for an answer. Years later, her husband sets up a little surprise for her so that she can truly experience what she had fantasized about. The Mango Tree by Sabina Faye takes us to the exotic locale of a rainforest in a dreamy story of erotic coupling. In The Prick of Time by Susan Dooley is told in the form of a woman writing her erotic memoir while flashing back and forth from her day to what she is writing about. She remembers the sensual and sexual aspects of her history, some innocent and some not so innocent. Watching oatmeal erupt slowly, becomes an orgasmic experience, as does the pursuit of the elusive "one more" perfect raspberry in the woods. This story is easy and sensual.

Every story in the collection is well written, whether it particularly carries the reader to the place that reader wants to go. The group sex story Reasons Not to Go to Fort Lauderdale by Liz Clarke offers such humorous turns of phrase as, "Affirmation time! Everybody empower and validate the person to your left - it's group therapy with orgasms!" Ninety-Three Million Miles Away by Barbara Gowdy is an exquisite tale of exhibitionism told through the character of a stay at home wife who is painting nude in the early morning sun of a window when she finds that she is being watched. Her relationship with her viewer grows into one of intimacy yet disconnection until she discovers who he is just when he is moving away.

There is a wide variety of stories to appeal to a wide audience, though intended for women. Not every story calls to me but the writing is universally sound and an interesting read.