If you’re like me, the time you spend on the toilet is sacred. You read. You think. You live a separate life in those five- to fifty-minute sojourns away from the public’s prying eyes. My favorite activity is reading, which is why I always keep  the current issue of Poets and Writers as well as a short story collection next to the porcelain throne. My most recent conquest was Sex Dungeon for Sale by Patrick Wensink.

There are some gems in this little book of about 90 pages. The title story, which also opens the collection, is hysterical. I actually read it twice in one sitting because it’s an artful diatribe about greed, lust, and classic American prudishness that’s masking an inner whore. The story is about a real estate agent trying to sell a house with a sex dungeon in it. While some of the jokes are obvious, most are well thought out and designed to give the reader pause to question what sex act can be performed with such an apparatus. Then the inevitable: would you try what wanders through your head? And all that is accomplished in two pages — beautiful.

Most of the stories are ridiculous-premise comedies with realistic settings. While not all are hysterical, they are at least amusing and will make you chuckle. Several, including “The Many Lives of James Brown’s Capes,” have a solid undertone of social commentary.

What impressed me most was the lack of a true clunker. No story has bad writing or content. However, there are a few moments when the collection seems to go schizophrenic. “Pandemic Jones,” for example, doesn’t fit the rest of the collection. “Pandemic Jones” is a segmented science-fiction story about pharmaceutical marketing with a serious-social-commentary tone. It’s well-written and the segmented structure keeps the pace moving. However, it’s twenty pages long and plunked in the middle of a bunch of comedies. Luckily for Wensink, I enjoy science fiction. But it was a little off-putting to fall into a tangent that’s almost 20% of the book.

I’m looking forward to Wensink’s next book. The cover of Sex Dungeon for Sale says he’s working on a novel. Also, I’m exploring the publisher’s web site, Eraserhead Press, which offers interesting titles that strike me as “high risk” books: either I’ll love them or I’ll hate them. But then again, aren’t all sex dungeons a little risky?

Tweet  Print This Post

Tags: books & writing // Add Comment »