Title: Best Sex Writing 2006 Author: Edited by Felice Newman and Frederique Delacoste Publisher: Cleis Press Publish Date: 2006 Pages: 197 Genres:: Compilation, Literature Reviewer: SexHerald Staff

Rating:

“You see, the thing I learned in Porn Valley is that it’s not about sex, it’s not about pornography, it’s about all that’s supposed to be. It’s the opposite of death, it’s what I fled from, it’s what was between my father and me all these years” (A Porn Valley Story, by Susannah Breslin).

Encompassing subject matters from sex as a refuge from grief to MRI imaging of female arousal in the brain, Best Sex Writing 2006 is a compilation of some very talented writers, including Tristan Taormino’s "An Ode to Ass: Reflections on Sex Ed, Porn, and Perversity." The writings span the spectrum of sexual lives and tastes, ranging from a study of the pansexual or “heteroflexible” activities of students at a Manhattan school (by Alex Morris) to an account of a how a lesbian’s sense of self is shattered when she is fired from her job for alleged sexual harassment ("Where The Truth Lies," Emily Depang). Tales of virginity lost and disillusionment found are also featured.

In "Just Always Be Good" by Stephen Elliott, a dominatrix client and survivor of child abuse chases physical injury from his mistress, trying to heal within by sustaining physical damage without. In "Out There, Mountain As A New Bridge," the writer Jeff Weinstein describes the relief of finally seeing gay characters portrayed in the movies and how despite the often negative or narrow representation, he’s still grateful. Veering over to the medical/science realm, writer Annalee Newitz spends time with sexual researchers working to develop the perfect orgasm-enhancing medicine ("The Coming Boom"). These stories take you past the surface desires of the flesh to the storms inside the souls that act as vectors for them.

One author notes the irony and hypocrisy of the U.S. government’s periodic crackdowns on and vilification of the more extreme forms of S&M while loudly defending its right to torture prisoners of war in a similar way ("Tortured Logic" by Eli Sanders). In "Where’s The Sin?: An Anti-Sermon", Shalom Auslander discusses how the saturation of easily available images of female nudity and legalization of forbidden fruit have dulled his libido. He bemoans the loss of burning lust he felt to know a young female body as a yeshiva schoolboy at an all-male school: “If they forbade me to look at it, I wanted to touch it. If they forbade me to touch it, I wanted to lick it. If they forbid me to lick it, I wanted to shave it, pierce it, and put things inside it.”

The collective content of Best Sex Writing 2006 does its title ringing justice--a phenomenally good read.