Singular Pleasures

By Harry Mathews

Book Overview

The subject of this unique book of short fiction is masturbation, a practice both universal and virtually taboo. In sixty-one vignettes, Mathews records the imaginative varieties of this solitary activity in prose that is playful, intimate, urgent, quirky, and humane.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564782336
• ISBN13: 9781564782335
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.4"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A series of fetes for the one thing besides death...

...that unites us all. The sheer breadth of fantasy, mechanical aids and passive witness employed in these 61 tableux is staggering: hysterical, sad, inventive, invective, or finally just so blatantly quotidian you suddenly find yourself acknowledging your habituated pleasures in a similar light.If you don't feel the need for the illustrations (I personally prefer it without), the complete text of "Singular Pleasures" is included in the Mathews prose anthology "The Way Home" published by the ever-trustworthy Atlas Press.

Brilliant realization of high concept

The concept, as I read it, is that most of us are bound by a common secret--masturbation--and that the lengths we go to in order to achieve release are what makes us distinct from each other as individuals--our imaginations. To prove it, Mathews, one of America's best unkowns, has written 61 vignettes of people of all ages and nationalities doing whatever it takes to express themselves. For example: "A man of thirty-five is about to experience orgasm in one of the better condominiums in Gaza. He is masturbating, but neither hand nor object touches his taut penis: arranged in a circle, five hairblowers direct their streams of warm air toward that focal point. He has plugged his ears with wax balls." Not all the vignettes are as funny; some are sad, some are touching, some make you tilt your head to one side, hoping for understanding; hoping in vain.