Anonymous

6 out of 10

A strange mix of eroticism and intimacy as the author (allegedly the Aussie, Nikki Gemmel) explores in the style of a diary or journal, the inner soul of a young woman experiencing love, lust and childbirth in her early married years.

The book is not an simple read but rather a long series of one or two page vignettes with chapter headings seemingly giving the sort of advise a mother might give a daughter which are in turn challenged by the chapter's prose. Sometimes it was a source of unnecessary frustration trying to relate the heading to an individual chapter's content.

While the book would undoubtedly give some readers a little titillation, as it is a frank exploration of many aspects of arousal and passion, it is not a 'hard-core' sex on every page book of eroticism. Male readers may well be bemused and wondering what it is all about. 

The writing is in the first person and starts with a young lady on her honeymoon in Marrakech. There is the initial relationship with Cole her new husband and then a new lover, Gabriel, who seems just to appear on the scene.

The 138 lessons in life became somewhat less interesting as one starts to search for some depth or thread of a story, which frankly was lacking. This is a book which might for some women allow them the private reflection of past emotional experiences in love and lust as well as the intensity of pain and turmoil in pregnancy. For them it may well be a must read. However, for most readers of fiction I doubt they will read it all but skim and be somewhat disappointed.

The prose is in places well constructed and emotive as in the 'slow creep of the cold'  when walking into a pool for the first time but at times it gets a bit lost - 'the first scrum of morning birds sounds like fat spitting and crackling in a kitchen'. Can't say I have ever heard those birds but it maybe an Australian thing (though it is set in Marrakech).

That said there are reviewers who have gushed praise on this book, though they would seem to be mostly women. Of course, it is a best seller in England and Australia so it must be striking a cord in many. I would recommend a read of more than a few pages before buying it. You may be disappointed.

©David K. Evans (2004)

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