Table of Contents
Praise for Francis Levy’s EROTOMANIA: A ROMANCE
*Queerty.com Top 10 Book of 2008.
*Inland Empire Weekly Standout Book of 2008.
“Levy is our generation’s D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and Charles Bukowski rolled into one.”
—INLAND EMPIRE WEEKLY
“[Erotomania] is a great book, written with flawless verve by a tremendous fictioneer and thinker, and it deserves glory. A classic.”
—ANDREI CODRESCU
“Levy seems to have an eye for detail for all that is absurd, commonly human, and uniquely American.”
—BOOKSLUT
“Sex is familiar, but it’s perennial, and Levy makes it fresh.”
—LOS ANGELES TIMES
“The book’s raw but thoughtful carnality comes off as at once serious, clever and crude in sending up the absurdities of contemporary hookings-up. It’s not a traditional love story, but debut novelist Levy puts thought and genuine feeling behind all the doings.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“[Erotomania] can just as easily be a bookend to the beautifully nuanced prose of Milan Kundera as it can be a long-version story for a nudie mag minus the accompanying photographs. It’s all in the context—as it is with most relationships.”
—THE QUARTERLY CONVERSATION
“Erotomania wields a comedic punch that makes it, above all, a fun novel to read.”
—NERVE
“A high-minded yet slapstick take on erotic desire.”
—TIME OUT CHICAGO
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I never thought group therapy would lead to this.
AUTHOR NOTE
None of the characters in this novel are real, nor are the places or psychoanalytic movements, even though the name Rio may conjure the real city of Rio de Janeiro. Lacanian analysis as described in the novel bears no resemblance to the branch of psychoanalytic practice initiated by the French analyst Jacques Lacan. Even the duration of time stated in the title bears little resemblance to what is commonly known as seven days. So don’t start writing irate letters to my blog correcting this or that or asking for refunds.
I went down to the Copacabana on my first night in Rio. I was told that most of the women were prostitutes who would gladly sleep with me for a hundred American dollars. I saw a sexy woman wearing high heels and an abbreviated bikini and decided that there was no sense in hesitating, since from what I’d heard about the lovemaking habits of Brazilians, one would be as talented as the next. I pursed my lips and made purring sounds like a pussycat to get the idea across, but the woman didn’t seem to notice me, even though I was wearing a seersucker suit from the Brooks Brothers 1818 Collection. There aren’t too many men wearing Brooks Brothers suits (or any suits for that matter) down by the Copacabana, and I would have thought I stood out from the crowd.
I have always found communication between myself and other human beings to be a problem, and often worry that I haven’t succeeded with women where I otherwise might because my words get caught between my teeth. So I just held out my hand to her as she waited for the traffic light to change. “I’m Kenny,” I said. “Do you understand anglais ? I am new to your country and I wanted to introduce myself while also initiating myself into your highly permissive sexual culture. I will put my cards on the table: I’d be glad to engage you to perform sexual acts on me for a fee.”
I don’t speak a word of Portuguese, so for a moment I entertained the idea of simply squeezing her breasts and spanking her very ample and exposed buttocks. But common sense prevailed. I intuitively knew that it wasn’t a good idea to touch the merchandise until we had worked out our fiduciary arrangement.
Even as she walked away from me I was convinced that if I had been more outspoken or demonstrative we might be on our way to a hotel room. Fuck, for instance, is one of those words that crosses cultural and class boundaries. I have said “fuck you” in hundreds of cities around the world, and everyone seems to know what I mean. Whether you’re in Bangkok’s famed Soi Cowboy, San Francisco’s Tenderloin, Paris’s Bois de Boulogne, Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, or Amsterdam’s Rossebuurt, fuck is as easily understood as the skull and bones. Fuck can be an expression of disgust or of longing. I should have simply asked, “Do you want to fuck?” and then we could have dealt with the logistics.
I had checked into my hotel room at the Copacabana only a few hours earlier. Both the young ladies at the reservations desk were absolutely astonishing. In fact, with their shiny, dark hair pulled tightly back and their ample cleavage adding just the right contrast to the formality of their blue uniforms, I could barely tell one from the other—though I did take note of a nameplate reading “Suzanne” on one of them, pledging to myself that by the end of my stay I would get up enough courage to offer her remuneration for her body. Upon arrival in Brazil, I immediately wanted to have sex with everyone, and by now I was already feeling nostalgic for that first flush of Brazilian pulchritude. I had carefully read the sex blogs, which described the easy familiarity of Brazilian women and the murky line that exists between prostitution and ordinary human interchanges.
I refused to allow the sting of my first encounter to deter me, so I lit off for an establishment called Café Brazil, which I had noticed when I drove up to the hotel. What better place to get into the spirit of a country than a bar named after it? Later on, I told myself, I would seek out the more exotic spots, like Café Erotique. For all I knew, there might be a Café Whore, perhaps even a Café Nympho.
I had heard that although Rio was a paradise teeming with available women, you did have to look out for pickpockets and petty criminals. There were even some rumors about kidnappings by gangs of sexy women who titillated you even as they held you for ransom. But I hadn’t reckoned with the simpler notion of being overcharged. In the great European capitals, American tourists are routinely handed menus with higher prices than what the locals