Phoenix Book Reviews would like to thank Emily for her review
Emily Marrison-Floyd lives by the seaside in Somerset with her slowly growing menagerie - currently comprising her husband, a house rabbit and a parrot.
'Forbidden Flowers' promises a 'celebration of a new freedom, where today's women joyfully accept and rejoice in the awareness of their own inner sexual
lives'.
This is as elucidating an explanation of the contents of the book as a dog explaining Einstein's Theory of Relativity to a five year old in Chinese. The book contains a collection of real women's sexual fantasies divided into categorised sections (eg looking, frustration, masturbation) each containing
an introductory discussion of the genre of fantasy by the author, Nancy Friday.
'Forbidden Flowers' is a sequel to Friday's 'My Secret Garden'. Following the success of the first book, Friday was inundated with letters from women
sharing their own fantasies with her and she has included them in this latest offering. The more cynical amongst you might think that Friday's
status as 'author' has been exaggerated and that 'compiler' would be more appropriate. However, she has attempted to analyse why women fantasise as
they do, the origins of feelings of guilt, promiscuity etc surrounding sex.
It seems as though Friday is attempting to have the book pigeonholed in the psychology category of literature, whereas in reality it is just glorified
erotica. Friday's psychological observations do not add to the book, which actually works better as erotica than as an academic work. If the book is
considered as being primarily erotica then her introductions do nothing but get in the way of the erotic experience and detract from the enjoyment of
the read. It is impossible to transform the book into a complete clinical read and so the attempt should not be made and the book would be better
being presented with just the stories on their own merits as erotic fiction.
As erotica the book can be hailed as one of the best of its genre. The most widely available books, articles, magazines and films that are described as
either 'erotica' or 'pornography' are aimed at men. When read by a woman it is difficult to become aroused. Men have different fantasies to women, they
are sexually aroused by different stimuli and, therefore, an erotic medium designed for a man can never equally satisfy a woman.
This book succeeds in plugging a gap in the market. This is erotica for women, written by women. Men are always keen to point out that women are
impossible to understand but this is written by women and they do understand what is required to stimulate the female brain and the female libido. As
the stories are written by anonymous women who have gained nothing from the inclusion of their contributions, there is no hidden agenda and the
resulting book provides a wealth of sexual stimuli for women.
I would recommend this book to any sexually liberated woman who wants to dip into erotic literature. There will be sections where the type of fantasy
does not appeal to some (eg lesbianism or domination) but there will be other sections containing fantasies that do appeal. Women have burned their
bras, sought equal treatment in society, demanded equality in the workplace and now we should strive to achieve equality in the bedroom. This book is a
step in that direction.
Publisher: Arrow Books
ISBN: 0 09 949791 3
Price: £5.99
Date Reviewed: August 2002
Emily's Rating: 4/5
