Review of the Book:
Sacred Exchange: Stories of Spirituality and Transcendence in Dominance and Submission, 
edited by Lisabet Sarai and S. F. Mayfair

Blue Moon Books, 2003.  230 pages, $14.95.
Reviewed by Gary Switch
garyswitch@aol.com

Come For Me, Dark Man - Short Story by Anne Tourney - from Sacred Exchange

What surpasses the physical acts of BDSM the way romantic love surpasses the physical acts of sex?  In an elegant volume of marvelous variety coupled with solid storytelling, Lisabet Sarai and S. F. Mayfair provide not one but many answers.  Striving to understand the deeper meaning behind the physical satisfaction of giving and receiving desired pain, the psychological satisfaction of negotiated command and obedience, they've selected twenty-two tales of catharsis, epiphany, empathy, self-revelation, the supernatural, ghosts, elves, aliens, rituals, sacrifices, and quests for the unobtainable.

Sarai has her third erotic novel Ruby's Rules forthcoming from Blue Moon, and Mayfair has been a multiple contributor to Prometheus (see "The Possession of Lust" in #39 and "Roasting Coffee" in #40).  Sacred Exchange proves as editors they possess keen ears for style.  Ears that appreciate the distinctive downbeat cadence of Lydia Swartz, whose Prometheus story "The Only Way" (#39) is one of the fiction editor's all time favorites.  Swartz's offering here, "Life and the Maiden," about a goth girl's deflowering, is just as brisk, just as telling, all noir-economy and punch lines:

"The virgin thinks she knows all about me because she can smell me.  What she doesn't know is what I am hungry for...I am old; she is young.  She is accustomed to boys."

Anne Tourney's opening Depression-era mood piece "Come for Me, Dark Man" combines a widow's unusual longings, the blues, and a stranger whose song is the train whistle's mournful wail.  Tourney sets the stylish standard for the book:

"Grace catches her breath, remembering the bite of her father's strap against the back of her thighs, the way her buttocks burned for hours afterward.  She once asked her husband to give her that secret pleasure, but when she saw the stark confusion in his eyes, she never asked again."    

Wizard M. Christian works his effortless magic in "Moving," a naked novice bottom's internal monologue sparked by the infinitely complex ramifications of his mistress' simplest possible command, "Don't move."  Christian creates suspense so unbearable you have to fight against peeking at the ending and all from a scene in which the mistress never so much as touches her partner.             

Pan-genre as well as pansexual, Sacred Exchange ranges from the here-and-now to fantasy, historical costume drama, melodrama, and science fiction.  Another Prometheus contributor, Mel Smith ("Cravings" in #40) offers a male/male alien-sex number "Living in Hell" that's not for the faint of heart.  Male Achalians are seven feet tall with twelve-inch cocks that feature feline-style barbs.  When an Achalian starship captain finds his life mate in a human male fuck-toy ("we became each other"), there's hell to pay for them both.

Two classic settings, the isolated country manse with a history and the medieval convent, both yield perfectly-shaped tales energized by their fearless heroines.  In Andrea Dale's "Return to Wildwood," Julia inherits the ancestral home along with its mysteries: "Every mistress of Wildwood has kept to the rituals."  There's a villain making her an offer she can't refuse and a woodland guardian spirit offering protection in return for submission both painful and ecstatic: "The steaming water and oil made her scrapes sting, but the fresh discomfort fueled her desire again...When she came, she writhed so violently that she sloshed half of the water out of the tub."  In Lisabet Sarai's "Communion," a novice nun is visited by a strange priest who knows just what is disturbing her so.  The sacred and profane switch roles -- damned, she is saved.  "Communion's" audacious opening sentence mirrors its theme:  "When the first flames touch my flesh, I feel no pain."                       

Along with that burning at the stake, two stories of disconnection and loss balance out the more upbeat offerings.  "Fuckwise" by Stefan Aries depicts a cyber-dom poseur and the severe problems he and his cyber-sub experience trying to do it in real life.  Tim Brough's "The Most Important Thing Right Now" stars a renowned master who's suffering a bad case of top drop -- he can no longer accompany the men he bottoms on their journeys.     

Sacred Exchange's search for deeper meaning doesn't mean seekers of hot BDSM erotica will be disappointed.  Portia Da Costa's "It Had to Happen," the story of a woman who discovers her masochistic nature via the ever-popular literary route, culminates in an exquisitely traditional six-page corporal punishment scenario, as if its heroine had stepped directly into one of the books that first inflamed her.  Sacred Exchange will be inflaming a new generation of readers who have certain inklings about the nature of their desires.  Its breadth of imagination, depth of interpretation, and just plain great writing make it a classy addition to the essential canon of leather literature.         


~~~  

Copyright 2003
This review is reprinted here with the explicit permission of the author. If you would like to share it with others, please link directly to this page or contact the author for permission. It is a violation of copyright law to distribute or reprint this piece without that permission, however you may include a short quote from it, not more than 20% of the total text. Please respect the integrity of this work.