A number of people have asked me, "When are you going to post your review of Tampa?" Tampa is the new book I wrote about earlier this summer here.
Now, I want to preface this by saying that I had read numerous reviews of the book prior to buying a copy and had become almost afraid that reading it was going to permanently scar me psychologically.
I can laugh about this now, as nothing is further from the truth.
For the first ten pages or so, I would read a couple of paragraphs, stop, go back and have to re-read them to confirm that I had, in fact, just read what I thought. Why? Because this book goes from zero to smutty in a blink - right from the first sentence. And by smutty, I mean sexually frank and confessional.
I was attracted to the book in the first place really just out of curiosity - hoping to read about a sexually-carnivorous character. The book felt a bit like a character study. Tight prose and plot, no superfluous scenes, a bit of humor here or there and a very, very quick read. We learn little else about the life of the pedophile (aka Celeste Price) but delve into her mind - her one-tracked mind focused on pre-pubescent boys.
And while I consider a person's pursuit of sex a matter of empowerment and remaining grounded with nature, Celeste is different. Not only because of her preference for kids, but her completely selfish, ruthless, predatory actions.
I feared there would be pages and pages of graphic sex scenes that would make my stomach turn. But I skipped just a page or two at one particular point - because I really just didn't want to know what she was doing to that kid.
To conclude, I was interested in reading a sexually-carnivorous tale but instead found a sexually-predatory one. It made me cringe, feel even more protective of kids, disgusted with the main character but not scarred for having read it.
As I said in my earlier post, I applaud the bravado of the author for writing about such a volatile topic. And do I recommend the book? Absolutely, yes. It's unlike ANYTHING I've ever read before.
2 comments:
Carnivorous? Perhaps you meant voracious. A carnivore is a creature that eats meat, while an herbivore animal is more akin to a human vegetarian. I have known vegetarians and vegans who were sexually voracious, and while they didn't consume animal flesh, they had a marked affinity for filling their mouths with meaty manhood. :-)
Best regards,
Burl Barer
http://burlbarer.net
You're absolutely right! :) The word 'carnivorous" didn't feel right even as I was writing the post, but I was at a momentary loss for words. ;) Thanks!
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