A modern erotic classic from 1999.
Available in eBook format from Amazon. Published by Hachette Book Group UK
This trio of explicit novellas captures the unique character of love and sex in America in three different eras of its history. Neptune & Surf shows us a world of forbidden interracial sex in New York’s infamous Coney Island in 1955; The Mercy Cure is a modern-day exploration of BDSM sex among de-frocked lesbian nuns; and Gianni’s Girl is the infamous account of a haunting gangbang among Chicago’s bootleggers in 1927.
Hardcore, uncompromising, explicit and powerful: Neptune & Surf is a sensation.
Lisabet Sarai‘s review of the re-issued edition:
Deserves the label “classic”
What is most impressive about this book is the skill with which
Ms. Lewis navigates the complex emotional landscape of sexuality. Her characters wander from shame to lust, from confusion to power, from anger to love, drawn to the flesh but never with complete
understanding. Her nuanced portraits bring believability to the
stories, even when the plots seem extreme or contrived. The shy, horny Black sailor, the tough but tender-hearted half-Chinese hooker, the self-indulgent gangster’s moll, these people linger in the reader’s mind long after the details of their erotic encounters have faded.
Ms. Lewis’ style is crisp and evocative. One smells the popcorn at
Coney Island, hears the snap of the birch cane, shivers with Victoria,
exposed and violated on the bridge above the swirling winter
river. The shortest of the three tales in the volume, “Gianni’s Girl”,
is switch-blade sharp, laced with seductive danger. The deadpan
dialogue crackles with barely suppressed violence. The plots of the
two novellas, “Neptune and Surf” and “The Mercy Cure”, use numerous temporal shifts which Ms. Lewis handles deftly, with admirable clarity. On the other hand, a more linear treatment might have made these stories even more effective. By the time the reader reaches the climax of “The Mercy Cure”, she has experienced so many thrilling trips to the past that the present feels a bit flat.
The sexual scenarios are inventive and explicit, described with
eloquence and grace even at their most raw. Occasionally, one has the sense that a flashback or daydream is gratuitous, interjected purely for the purpose of adding yet another sex scene. In most cases, though, the sex unfolds organically, propelled by the psychologies and histories of the participants. Even within a single scene, there may be many moods, as the emotional balance shifts and mutates. Gentleness morphs to savagery. Terror melts to passionate arousal. The effect can be a bit overwhelming, leaving the reader both damp and breathless, head spinning.
That is the nature of sex, though. It touches us at every level. It
makes us dizzy. It awakens our fears and insecurities, delusions and
creativity. In the erotic realm we are both beastly and divine, and
sometimes both at once. Ms. Lewis’ work captures this truth, with
sympathy and considerable craft.
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