Rating: 
Summary: Simply incredible!
Review: Reading a book that is both erotic and literary is always a treat. Alma Marceau's Lofting is one of the most exquisite erotic novels ever written. As fiendishly graphic as it is beautifully philosophical, Lofting chronicles the unraveling of a woman's electrifying sexual desire. She has decided to surrender her body to her master, but little did she anticipate that she'd end up surrendering her heart...Lofting is full of wonderful imagery and poetic undertones. To describe this novel as erotic is putting it mildly. It is an extraordinary piece of work, beautiful and lyrical. There are some humorous moments as well. Are you in the bargain for literary erotica? I suggest you pick up this incredible book.
Rating:
Summary: An Uplifting Experience
Review: This book is a delightful surprise! I came across it when my girlfriend and I were considering buying a loft and looking for some advice. I got advice all right, and it certainly has helped make my girlfriend and me very happy, but it was on a whole other level! And it wasn't really the sex, though it's riveting, page-turning stuff. And it wasn't the concept of "lofting" per se--I'm virtually asexual when it comes to online relationships--though that was a fascinating world to discover. No, it was the literary wit of the thing! Ms. Marceau clearly has a gift--for the nonverbal, it goes without saying--but also for the easy transition from scenes of intimacy to the rhythms of the street, from arousing narrative description to philosophical wordplay. Her lightning-like allusions and brilliant turns of phrase serve to deepen the enduring interest of this book and of its amazing cast of attractive characters. (Everyone will find someone to lust after in these pages.) You will read passages over and over, not just to revisit, say, the young girls in the stables or the sleepy studs in the "loft," but also to discover even more new delights hidden away in the many folds of this intricately complex presentation of promiscuity. Whether she is lingering over a Madeleine or deftly picking apart the telltale scraps of some potted meat, Marceau knows just what it is a reader wants when it's time for a break from the routine.
Rating:
Summary: MIND AND BODY
Review: THIS BOOK IS NOT THE USUAL SEX FARE. IN THE MIDDLE OF FINELY WRITTEN SEX SCENES, THE CHARACTERS COMMENT ON THE ABSURDITIES OF MODERN LIFE WITH HUMOR AND INSIGHT. IT'S HARD TO TELL WHICH PART OF THE BODY ENJOYED IT MORE. I THOUROUGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: Smart is Sexy
Review: This erotica is for the brain as well as for the nether regions; I like it when I have to look words up in between descriptions of debauchery. With all the hype about Catherine M., etc., this a refreshing change, well-written, well done erotica. A sexual life worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: a thorough disappointment
Review: Well, it starts out well. The conceit of email sex is skillfully done. In fact, the sexy emails are the only good thing about this book, and when the author unwisely moves away from them, about mid-way through the book, the entire thing falls flat. Aside from the emails, the book is filled with unbelievable characters engaging in anatomically dubious acts described in trite sentences - over and over and over and over. By the end the book has degenerated into a mash of plot-driven pseudo S&M. Other people's reactions to this book are proof positive that the genitals and the brain are not connected.
Rating:
Summary: More than one handed reading
Review: You know what they say - porn is one handed reading. But good erotica is more. Well Lofting is most assuredly two handed reading - you need the other hand to look up words in the dictionary. Can erotica be intelligent ? You bet - Marceau proves it.
Rating:
Summary: Lofting, An Everyday Guide to Entertaining
Review: Zabangi! Alma, Claire, Andres and Nick welcome you to a zone so real, it makes us wonder. Just as Nietzsche's "The Gay Science" isn't (necessarily) about cheek to cheek, "Lofting" isn't (simply) about sex. It's about life with real walking papers, after 35. You are now free to go. (And come in any way you please.) As a computer keyboard finds its way into the knowing, pianist-like fingers of Andres, a musing Claire finds herself in need of the music. Some may find the unyielding banter between them as upwardly pretentious. Consider however, that Merceau has simply polished an old-world patina onto the gutteral groaning groin of our most finely honed, collective orgasm. (What's the point of evolving if you can't go full circle?) Merceau craftily manages the disconnect between the base, primordial mange of long lost lusty, take-and-beg sticky goo and--"words." Words that have betrayed even the masters for thousands of years. It is not just the words themselves, but the "back and forth" of them that turns these pages for you. One demands that one receives and where there is "faith-in-goo," there is (not unlike Holy Communion) a discovery of wholeness. It is Claire coming full circle, diving to the bottom to reach the top. Walking papers. Certificate of Authenticity. Alas, she has taken arms and joined the men. Freedom rings everywhere, slippery when wet! Lofting imposes an erotic authenticity of wordage that begins in Instant Messaging, carrying all the way through the real-life scenarios of a faithful Claire and her "already-there" high-priests, Nick and Andres. One demands that one receive and Merceau never sacrifices the erotic authenticity of the well-spoken word of the matter as it is in the moment, for yet another lie of "How we should want." The demand and receipt remains unsurprising (yet surprising) as Nick and Andres become demanders and receivers of each others' peelings of Claire's onion. As for me, I finally discovered that the word, "psnob." was left out of the Categorical Imperative. I too am a "psnob's psnob," and like Merceau, that's my story and I'm really sticking to it. No apologies for laughing at and with an acute case of intelligence, not simply in the words, but in knowing the longing of the 'every Claire" to be swept up--not like THAT, but like THIS. Alma Merceau reminded me of what I forgot, what WE have left behind in the SUV. Hail. I fell, hook, line and sinker and I don't want to get up.
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