Well, well, well. Here is a book that is very very sexy indeed and yet also challenges all your assumptions. There was perhaps a bit more 'fashion' in this book than I remember from y furtive reading of it all those years ago. I think, like with American Psycho, I skipped through the descriptions of clothing that first time around. On this reading I skipped nothing, and enjoyed everything. The descriptive passages are beautiful, there is no distinction made between the descriptions of sex and the description of a gown. BDSM has always challenged my feminist nature, particularly when a woman is the bottom and a man is the top. In O, surprisingly, power comes from her submission. Regae has deftly made it clear that submissiveness is one thing on the surface, but another at its core. O becomes more powerful with each act of submission. What a challenging and culturally interesting move on the part of the author. I now must elevate Regae to a similar position to Angela Carter in my writer's hall of fame. Here is a woman who can play with cultural assumptions and throw the world on its head. The thing with Regae is that she does this whilst also titillating the reader with some of the sexiest sex scenes ever translated into English.
My hat is off to you Ms Regae and, if you command it off me, so is the rest of my clothing. I will be forever your slave.
kk
4 comments:
Just re-read this myself but still skipped 'the boring bits'. I can see what she was trying to do, of course sex in context is a 'real story' and not pornographic.
Did you find Emmanuelle? Re-read it, and found it as erotic as I did when in my late teens however again, skipped the boring bits.
I love you blog and book reviews. Thanks so much!
One small thing: It is Pauline Reage, not Regae.
Sorry Anonymous but you will find I have misspelled things in almost every post. That is the nature of this blog. I write it quickly as like a notebook. Thanks for alerting my to the mistake though.
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