A
Literary Saloon
&
Site of Review.

Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.



Contents:
Main
the Best
the Rest
Review Index
Links

weblog

crQ

to e-mail us:



In Association with Amazon.com


In association with Amazon.com - UK


In 
Partnerschaft 
mit 
Amazon.de

the Complete Review
the complete review - prose



Singular Pleasures

by
Harry Mathews


general information | our review | links | about the author

To purchase Singular Pleasures



Title: Singular Pleasures
Author: Harry Mathews
Genre: Prose
Written: 1981
Length: 144 pages
Availability: Singular Pleasures - US
Singular Pleasures - UK
Singular Pleasures - Canada
Die Lust an sich - German
  • First published 1988
  • With illustrations by Francesco Clemente
  • Also available in The Way Home (see our review)

- Return to top of the page -



Our Assessment:

B : fairly successful variations on a theme

See our review for fuller assessment.




The complete review's Review:

       Singular Pleasures offers 61 variations on that most common of singular pleasures. Across the ages, the world, the sexes, and the techniques Mathews' offers his descriptions of people paying their devotions to the great god Onan.
       It is not exactly masturbatory fantasy that Mathews' revels in (though, of course, it also is exactly that). Mathews merely describes the act and some of the attendant circumstances, in short pieces generally only some five and rarely more than fifteen lines in length. This is not arousing literature, though it certainly is voyeuristic.
       Many scenarios are imagined (though certainly there are possibilities that remain unexplored). The masturbators are young and old, male and female, alone, together, watchers or being watched, and many in unlikely, embarrassing, and occasionally dangerous locations when they go about their pleasuring business. There is little connection between the individual acts, spread across the globe as they are (from Christchurch, New Zealand to Alma Ata to near Valparaiso to Kyoto in one random but representative sequence).
       An organization founded in Prague, MAID (Masturbation and its Discontents), "encourages its members to invent obstacles while masturbating." Mathews offers a few examples, then leaves off.
       Mathews' engaging, quirky descriptions never bore -- they are short descriptions in a short book. Everyone always quickly gets to the point.
       The Clemente illustrations (available in Dalkey Archive edition, but not in The Way Home) are a nice complement to the text. They are, fortunately, not explicit.
       These variations on this particular theme will obviously not appeal to everyone, but Singular Pleasures is an amusing entertainment.

       Note: this is not a how-to manual, and while there are some imaginative ideas in here there is not a great deal to learn.

- Return to top of the page -



Links:

Singular Pleasures: Harry Mathews: OuLiPo: Other Books by Harry Mathews under Review Other books of interest under review:
  • See Index of Oulipo books under review
  • See Index of Contemporary American fiction

- Return to top of the page -



About the Author:

       American author Harry Mathews was born in 1930. He graduated from Harvard. In 1952 he moved to Paris, becoming a member of the OuLiPo in the early 1970s.

- Return to top of the page -


© 2000-2010 the complete review

Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links