Nerve: Literate Smut

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, barely sexy
Review: It fascinates me how people can write so many words about sex and not be sexy. A couple of the essays are decent, but the fiction is incredibly shallow and non-erotic, just like on their site. The phony virgin story has to be the worst. _Much_ better erotic writing is being put up on the Web every month by places like scarlettletters.com and cleansheets.com . I can only say that I'm glad a friend gave me his copy of this book and I didn't buy it!

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat disappointing.
Review: This book is correctly subtitled; the writing is certainly literate, and, given that it has a sufficient sexual content to offend those with low levels of prurience tolerance, I suppose it must be acknowledged to be smut. Still, for all of that, it failed in it's implied mission, if not its stated one; I expected (and wanted) this book to be a collection of well-written erotica, unlike most porn, which is written by and for the barely-literate. And while a few of the entries accomplished this, most failed miserably at the task of being erotic. Some were interesting, even thought-provoking. But very few were sexy. I expected better; I expected interesting, thought-provoking, AND sexy. I guess I just expected too much.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, barely sexy
Review: This book is not about how to have great sex. It's about sex. Period. And it's wonderful. The essays compiled by editors Genevieve Field and Rufus Griscom are excellently written, and may give the reader that certain answer to a certain question. Or else, they may simply provide some of that squeaky clean entertaiment we all look forward to when reading about sex. If you have ever wondered what other people - besides your closest friends - think about sex in general, perhaps you should look into this one... And I cannot possibly forget to mention all the wonderful photographs! Although it is obvious that some seem to playfully balance on edge of being classified as porn (our more conservative readers, beware), all of them are undoubtedly art, and most are undoubtedly nude. This is really one of the most intelligent books I've read on the subject of erotica in general...

Rating:
Summary: But is it art?
Review: This book is not about how to have great sex. It's about sex. Period. And it's wonderful. The essays compiled by editors Genevieve Field and Rufus Griscom are excellently written, and may give the reader that certain answer to a certain question. Or else, they may simply provide some of that squeaky clean entertaiment we all look forward to when reading about sex. If you have ever wondered what other people - besides your closest friends - think about sex in general, perhaps you should look into this one... And I cannot possibly forget to mention all the wonderful photographs! Although it is obvious that some seem to playfully balance on edge of being classified as porn (our more conservative readers, beware), all of them are undoubtedly art, and most are undoubtedly nude. This is really one of the most intelligent books I've read on the subject of erotica in general...

Rating:
Summary: Review of Nerve from "The Book Report"
Review: This review also appears on America Online's "The Book Report" (Sept 8, 1998).

The only thing more difficult than writing well about sex is writing about it honestly. That's what a couple of twentysomething editors, Rufus Griscom and Genevieve Field, discovered when they left their jobs to launch the online sex magazine Nerve.com last summer. "Sex is a subject tripwired with insecurities and conflicts --a subject that people lie about as a matter of course," note Griscom and Field in their introduction to NERVE: LITERATE SMUT. One peek at this anthology --- a sampling of previously published essays, stories and photos preserved offline in the traditional way suggests that many of the contributors evidently felt up to the challenge.

Nonetheless, the volume's title is something of a misnomer --- there's not much smut (literate or otherwise), and if it's Nancy Friday or Penthouse Forum you're looking after, look elsewhere. But if what you're after are honest and perceptive essays about sex, you'll find several here.... --- Reviewed by Paul Zakrzewski