Review: The definition of erotica...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 12, 2013
When I think of erotica as a genre, "The Christmas Exhibition" is the kind of work I picture. Firstly, there's no way this novel could be made into a movie without a XXX rating. The sex is more or less constant so there's no chance of obscuring it in any way. At the start of the novel, Matt (who is telling the story) and Jill are having a conversation about her night punctuated by this sexual move and that sexual move. There is no wham bam thank you ma'am in this story; the main characters have the staying power of superheroes. When you hear people who go all night, these are the people.There is an obsession in the novel from Jill that consumes Matt, can you want to have sex with someone who totally repulses you. In that repulsion can you be turned on? There were several points in the novel when I didn't think Jill and Matt liked each other. Matt is paranoid not only about some other man touching Jill but how much Matt loves and hates the idea of some other man touching Jill. Jill tells us throughout the story that its about control over Sean (the son) but I wonder if the intent of the author was to show us how much Jill's sexual obsessions have control over her.I find the psychology of this couple absolutely fascinating. They love humiliating each other, the idea of perversion and the idea of cheating in spirit. "The Christmas Exhibition" is the first in a series of books featuring Jill and Matt several years into the future. We know in the future based novels that Jill sleeps with Gary so sleeping with another man is not a deal breaker for Matt as he thinks it might be. In the end its for the reader to decide, is Jill really getting the upper hand on Sean or is she simply a slave to her need to be wanted - her need to be an exhibitionist.