Foreign Affairs - book discontinued by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Jul!a

Foreign Affairs features a collection of authors and has been edited by Mitzi Szereto. This is my first Mitzi book, so these authors are all new to me. But you might recognize Christine Bellerose, Cheyene Blkue, Helena Settimana, Carole Rosenthal, Opal Palmer Adisa, Des Ariel, Linda Jaivin, Mitzi Szereto, Rachelle Claret, Gwen Masters, Gerard Wozek, Diane LeBow, Tabitha Flyte, Grevevl Lindop, A.F. Waddell, Jai Clare, Lisabet Sarai, Sage Vivant, Donna George Storey, Debra Hyde, or Holly Farris.

At the end of the book is a small section with a paragraph for each author and a page about the editor as well.

If you couldn't guess based on the title, Foreign Affairs is filled with stories about sexual trysts in foreign places. That doesn't necessarily mean big huge overseas vacations, but instead can be something as simple as a visit to the next state over. The stories are all well written, although with what seems like a very flowery wording choice for most of them. Well, maybe flowery is the wrong word, but the descriptions were more almost whimsical than a lot of other books I've had experience with.

Most of the stories focus on heterosexual sex, although there are a few gay stories as well. 12 Days in a Week tells us the tale of an older man who beds a younger man. He shares the stories of their 12 fucks in 7 days, how they met and how their relationship progressed and how it ended before he goes home to his wife and son.

One Day on 375 features a gay man, although no gay sex per se. He and his lesbian companion travel towards Roswell because she wants to investigate alien activity. Along the way, they run into an alien of their own when they stop to pick up a hitchhiker.

Remembering Andrei has more of a bittersweet ending than one might enjoy in their erotica. While the ending may not keep the mood going, the content of the story as our lead female thinks back to her travels in Romania and remembering the 9 special days she had with Andrei before having to leave, is a bit heartwarming at least.

It's your basic paperback, although a little bigger than some of the other ones I've received with this one coming in at about 8"x6". While the cover does mention "erotic travel tales", the picture isn't terribly offensive. So this isn't the worst thing you could bring into public with you.

I had such a hard time getting into this book. I have no idea why. Some stories click with me, others just don't apparently. I did really enjoy reading Peking Duck because it was set up in the same ADD manner that I think in most of the time. There was a chunk of stories in the middle of the book that really worked for me, but most of the book was just so hard to get through.

Whitewood is a definite exception. It had potential, but seemed a bit confusing to me. The sex scenes were easy enough to follow, even if they were full of descriptive words that almost seemed to do little more than take up space. Others might be able to follow the story more easily, but to me it felt like the paranormal elements (which could have been totally awesome) were thrown in as almost an afterthought. There was no explanation of why there were ghosts or why they were telling stories other than the mention of a sign earlier in the story, and the end of the story really confused me. The very end goes back to the very beginning, then to the ghosts telling a story, then to the beginning of the couple's trip and I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a "premonition" type thing or what. Others may like it, but I wasn't a fan of that particular story.

Overall, like most anthologies of stories I feel like this one has potential. There's a little bit of something for everyone, but for me, it could have been better.