Yellow Silk II: International Erotic Stories and Poems »

Mary Gordon. Kenzaburo Oe. Amy Bloom. Ivan Klima. James Dickey. Paul Theroux. Jane Hirshfield. W. S. Merwin. And many others.

Acclaimed International Writers Explore the Essence of Eros

Now the editor of Yellow Silk, the world's premier publication of erotic literature, assembles a collection of over 40 new erotic short stories and poems — many never before available — from around the world. From Mary Gordon's tribute to seeing and being seen, to James Dickey's ode to "interspecies infatuation" ... from Dany Laferriere's confession of Haitian secrets to Ingrid Hill's revelation of Chinese ones ... from W. S. Merwin's account of sexual initiation in backwoods America to Kenzaburo Oe's adventures in urban Japan and Amy Bloom's tale of a luxurious sexual experience before the eyes of God ... YELLOW SILK II conveys the power and the transformative nature of passion with the brilliance and intensity only great writing can conjure. Expect to be moved. Expect to reacquaint yourself with the many astonishing faces of sex, love, and Eros itself.

Kirkus Reviews

A companion to the earlier Yellow Silk collection (1991) that locates the most erogenous zone well above the belt, this time embracing erotic expression from around the world and arranged in sections labeled by global location ("inside," "outside," "center," "the four directions"). Epigraphs from Samuel Green ("Psalm") and Rumi establish the predominance of the imaginative over the carnal. What follows is sometimes lyrical (Dorianne Laux's "The Orgasms of Organisms," Ikeno Yuri's "The Day of Sin"), sometimes impenetrable ("You drag your sexual entrails to this sacred place—this final place of fury, desire—your tears are nails and paint—abyss of birds—ruined spine leg"—from Carole Maso's World Tonight). Some of the more earthbound pieces stand out amidst the abundant abstraction. James Dickey's "The Sheep Boy" imagines poignantly the result of man-beast congress. Excerpts from Kenzaburo Oe's 17 & J form an ode to masturbation. Mary Gordon's excerpt from Spending explores how wealth can facilitate the erotic. Ivan Klima's materful tale, "A Baffling Choice," transcends category. The poet W.S. Merwin is represented in prose ("Marietta"), the Haitian Dany Laferri(re writes about a 17-year-old Manhattan girl's sexual awakening in Haiti from the point of view of the girl's mother, an instigator, then accidental witness ("Nice Girls Do It, Too"). Sexuality as an issue is present throughout the collection. Sexuality as erotic behavior is scarce. An uneven compendium with abysmal lows, stratospheric highs.