Translated by Claus von Bohlen

MARION BOYARS MODERN CLASSICS

Objects of desire discussed candidly by a French writer - a collection of meditations on love, sex, and desire.

Love, sex and desire… how do we experience them? How do we relate them to the opposite sex? How does society want us to confront these impulses? In twenty-four short chapters Alina Reyes writes erotic, poetic, humorous and candid prose. She describes her fantasies and her relationship with her own body. She describes what she looks for in her lovers and what she likes about their bodies. She praises the senses and the roles they play inside and outside of the bedroom. She asks pertinent questions: Why are we so hung up about the orgasm? Do we see sex as a means to an end, rather than as an end in itself? Why do men try so hard to give women pleasure, when women sometimes simply enjoy playing with a man’s body? Why are women’s magazines full of photographs of desirable girls rather than masturbating men? Alina Reyes also examines the social pressures which lead to the premature deaths of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, and which contribute to widespread attitudes of machismo and/or shame.

These joyful, educated and erotic meditations constitute a serious examination of the nature of desire and how it fits in with the strictures of society.

Alina Reyes is the best-selling author of The Butcher (1988), which was an immediate success in her native France, selling 500,000 copies. Her first book was unusual in its time, being both a piece of erotica and written by a woman. In August 2004, Grove published her new novel, Satisfaction.

Price: £8.95
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0-7145-3106-5
Essays/Philosophy