Editor: Mitzi Secreto

Publisher: Cleis Press

ISBN 1-57344-206-2

The following review was contributed by:  SHELDON (SHELLY) WAXMAN & click to view Shelly's reviews.

            The title is intriguing, although slightly misleading. This book is a compilation of short stories. They are not about the actual sex lives of the famous. They are fictional versions of how those, such as: Lincoln (who fears that the Whitehouse guards will see them, which is something that Mary Lincoln greatly enjoys), Freud, God, etc., might have enjoyed sex, or, if you will, graphic sex or as the publishers call it—erotica.

The stories are very well written, inventive and better than most in this genre. To me, it’s all about sex acts or what should be called pornography, which is defined by its prurient appeal. If it doesn’t appeal to such interests, it fails. I am an old fart, so my bias about this book should be taken in that light.

The problem with this book, I suggest, is that all the stories are based on one theme—the famous having sex. Short story mystery anthologies are similar in this respect but the differing plot lines make each story different. The prurience (if that’s a word) gets old pretty fast.

There are only so many ways that sex acts can be performed or described—Karma Sutra and all that. So, it gets boring and by the middle of the book the prurience disappears and it becomes just a lot of wrestling and contorting.

I applaud the editor for getting a bunch of good writers together to write the stories. And I appreciate the inventive idea. Those alone make it worth a read.