“Getting Past Almost”– an erotic treasure

 

Lee, Donovan. “Getting Past Almost: Expanded Edition”, Writers Club Press, 2002.

An Erotic Treasure

Amos Lassen

Being from New Orleans, I gravitate toward books about the city and I don’t know how I could have missed this one. The author sent me a copy yesterday and I immediately sat down and read it and I was impressed. It is quite, to say the least, erotic. I often have wondered about books that have so much sex but this one is special—it has a great story as well. The sex is very hot but the plot of the book is so good that even though you are reading some of the hottest fiction I have ever read, there is that wonderful storyline that makes it all that much better.

From what I have read the book has been published twice. Donovan Lee, the author and also the name of the main character, decided that after it succeeded in its initial publication to pull it back and add some of what he had previously cut as well as add some new material. All in all, it is a wonderful read.

I do have the feeling that I have spoken to the author and I wonder if it is who I think it is. At any rate, let me write about the book.

As the narrator, Donovan Lee, tells a friend of his about his gay sexual experiences we are let into the life of a young man discovering and experimenting with his sexuality. He relates to a high school friend some of his escapades and another friend happened to see something he should not have causing some trouble for the two friends. Young Donovan is ostracized and as soon as he graduates from the high school in the small town in Louisiana where he lives, he heads for New Orleans in search of love and happiness. What he finds is sex, sex and more sex and ultimately falls in love with his dream man. However his happiness is threatened and this threat could ruin his happiness. What Donovan does learn is to accept himself and all those changes that come with living.

To tell you anymore would ruin a good read and I would not want to do that. This is one of those books that you will read and remember for a long time and not just because of the sex but because we learn about self acceptance and being ourselves. I tell you that is one book that you will enjoy from cover to cover.

“Close Contact”– steamy

 

Wolfe, Sean. “Close Contact”, Kensington, 2005.

Steamy

Amos Lassen

Have you ever wondered how much truth goes into fiction? I often do—especially with erotic stories. I question all literature—we all know that every writer is influenced, to some degree, by his own personal experiences. Sean Wolfe’s stories are very sensual and very erotic and I can only hope that he has been able to experience some of the things he writes about…or he has a very fertile imagination.

In “Close Contact” he provides a story for everyone’s taste—at least, for those who have been involved in having sex. This fits the definition of erotica to the letter.

“Close Contact” has one purpose—to arouse the senses and in that it succeeds wonderfully. Aside from the purely sexual nature of the stories though, there is humor and even hope for love. I think the humor is great because it shows that we can laugh at or during sex. There is also hope for something better than just great sex.

One of the stories is about a guy peeking into his lover’s diary and feeling like he is cheating. In “Badlands”, a naïve kid from Texas gets quite an education in a wild gay bar. “Lessons in Life guarding: Lesson I” does for showers the opposite of what “Psycho” did. How about what happens when a truck driver checks into a bed and breakfast and gets more than a meal and a place to sleep. There is nothing like three fraternity brothers understanding the true meaning f brotherly love. And so on and so on the stories go.

I really do not read a lot of erotica but this is the second book of Sean Wolfe’s that I have read and I am quickly becoming a fan of his. His twenty-eight stories are more than erotic; they are well written short stories. This is quite an accomplishment.

“Adrennian Boy”–romantic erotica

Maltese, William and Wayne Gunn. “Adrennian Boy”, MLR Press, 2007.

Romantic Erotica

Amos Lassen

I have always been drawn to historical fiction mainly because you not only get a good read but you learn a little something. This is essentially true in Maltese and Gunn’s “Ardennian Boy” which is based on the lives and loves of French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. You not only get historical fiction but classy, raw erotica (and Maltese is well known for this).

We first meet Rimbaud as a teenager from the French provinces. He is wild and will do anything and he believes that the more excesses that he experiences, the better poet he will become. He experiences much as a young man and lives an extremely decadent life.

Verlaine is in a marriage which seems to hold him a prisoner. His wife nags him and he must suppress any homosexual feelings that he has. However, when the two men meet, sparks fly and the two men begin a torrid love affair, one that Verlaine is totally unprepared for. Before Rimbaud, Verlaine’s poetry was merely passable but the passion that is awakened in him by the younger man from Ardennes, pushes him to the position of a great French poet. Verlaine ultimately ignores the societal conventions of the time and  the two men live on the fringes of French culture. Ultimately the two poets join others such as Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde as “literary pioneers in the struggle for gay rights in the 19^th century.

When the two men met, Rimbaud was only 16 years old and Verlaine was ten years his senior. “Ardennian Boy” tells us that Rimbaud was not physically attracted to Verlaine but admired his mind. Rimbaud manages to “drag” Verlaine out of his mundane life style and brings him into a self-destructive relationship and this self-destruction seems to be the reason that the two men rose to the heights of poetic expression. I think it is important to understand that the book does not deal with modern times but actually takes place some 130 years ago. Maltese tells the story with vivacity wile Gunn is responsible for the translation of the poetry. The two authors alternate poetry and story and it works beautifully. Both the poetry and the storyline are important to understanding the “love” that the poets shared. I particularly love the way that the poets exchange their poetry while they are involved in sexual activity. There is not a lot of romance here but there is great sex.

The two authors tell a story that is blatantly erotic. The relationship between the two  Frenchmen scandalized French society and also brought us some of the most beautiful and bawdy gay poetry ever written. Maltese gives us hot sex all through the book and he does so in a sublime manner. The sex is hot but it also beautifully written. The story is not one that I would call “pretty” but it is compelling and a look at two of France’s greatest poets in a new light is a rewarding experience. The characters are geniuses who need to the sex to set off the fuse of their minds.

Granted the book falls into the genre of literary erotica but it is so much more than that. Looking at the sexual psyche of Verlaine and Rimbaud gives us a look at the sprit of the times as well as shows us the beginning of true sexual liberation. The two authors of “Ardennian Boy” have presented us with a great read as well as a peek into a period of history that so many of us do not know much about.