Looking For a Good Book

Every night, when she goes to sleep, a young woman dreams of erotic encounters with the various men she meets or sees during the day – maybe the mailman, maybe the museum guard, the baker, the tailor. maybe even the priest, and so on. Each unique, imagined encounter is specific to the specialized talents of the man visiting.

No one is named, not even the dreaming woman. The anonymity of the dreams would appear to be part of the excitement.

That’s it. There’s no gigantic story arc or plot. This is more thematic flash fiction, almost poetry, than short stories. And it works.

Of course I really like surrealist fiction and this fits the label, though I suspect this might be hard to categorize beyond that. Poetry? Yes … but no. Flash fiction? Yes … but no. Erotica? Yes … but no.

Although the dreams are of erotic encounters, the writing is suggestive rather than obvious. The more direct sexual references might be The Aviator (“His cockpit convulses. His fuselage rattles. My aerial mounds roll and shift in the blue sky, on lusty offer.”) or The Beekeeper:

Outside, the bees are pushing against the veil. The pulsating swarm surges. A black mass, humming, ripples, rolls, throbs, darkens the daylight. The vibration swells, seething, relentless, resounding. Then I feel the thrust of one swift, searing prick.

No encounter is longer than two pages, which makes this a very swift read (allowing for time to fan ones-self with the book).

My personal favorites were The Cook and The Clockmaker (“…feel my big hand. How precise it is. … And my spring. How tight it is. … My mechanism is in excellent working order.” … “The clockmaker’s on the fritz. He’s going off much too early.” Ha!)

The book was originally written in French and has been translated by Caitlin O’Neil. I give a huge round of applause to Ms O’Neil for her work. The suggestive language is key to the success of this book and she’s done extremely well.

Looking for a good book? Gentlemen Callers by Corinne Hoex might be hard to categorize (poetry? erotica? surrealist fiction?) but that makes no difference – the joy is in the reading.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Gentlemen Callers

author: Corinne Hoex

translator: Caitlin O’Neil

publisher: Dalkey Archive Press

ISBN: 9781628973686

paperback, 156 pages