Product Description

In this eye-popping first novel--a bestseller in both the United States and Australia--Linda Jaivin invites readers to overhear what women really talk about when they talk about sex.

When four bright, successful friends meet in Sydney's designer cafés and restaurants to gossip about their romantic exploits, the talk sizzles. Julia, Chantal, Helen, and Phillipa are the best of friends. Professionally, their lives could not be more different, but whenever they get together, there are always plenty of intimate revelations to dish up and devour. Julia is a spunky photographer with a penchant for Peking duck and younger men; Chantal is a fashion magazine editor whose sexual preferences give new meaning to the words "mixing and matching"; Helen is a feminist scholar whose outward wholesomeness belies her inner naughtiness; and Phillipa is a somewhat secretive writer who appears to be taking rather close notes on her friends' raunchy tales. This outrageous, irresistible, and utterly original debut, which led Entertainment Weekly to call Jaivin "one of the 100 most creative people in entertainment," is the juiciest book you will read this year.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #386304 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-13
• Released on: 1998-04-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Library Journal
Bound to be controversial, this debut novel from a young Australian writer features four women friends discussing their sex lives and fantasies in frank detail. In doing so, they raise such issues as the difference between pornography and erotica, the role of gender politics in society, and what constitutes feminism. Along the way, Jaivin also manages to puncture many literary and critical pretensions. Her writing is often funny and satiric, and by layering stories she keeps the reader guessing about what is "real" and what is fantasy. Still, while some readers might enjoy the humor, off-beat characters, and discussions of social trends, others will be shocked and offended by the explicit language and descriptions of what might be perceived as bizarre sexual acts. A possibility for adventurous general readers and some women's studies collections, but purchase with caution.
-?Barbara E. Kemp, SUNY at Albany Libs.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Combine a saucy, Waiting to Exhale sort of girl-gossip tone with Vox's lusty sexuality and you get this witty, sophisticated (if unfortunately titled) tale of four Australian women friends' amatory peccadillos. Julia, a photographer, adores younger men--even if they do exhibit a frustrating refusal to commit. Helen, a ``whole-grain loaf'' of a lit professor, can whip up a salacious fantasy about any man despite her feminist politics and anxiety about her weight. Chantal, the anoretic fashion editor of a style magazine, prefers the safety of gay men to the arrogant hetero poseurs she's met in the past. And Philippa, a self-defined lesbian and voyeur, claims she keeps herself sexually satisfied by committing her erotic fantasies to paper. Meeting at Sydney's Caf‚ Da Vida, these four high-powered women, all in their early 30s, relish exchanging reports of exceptional one-night stands, libidinous fantasies, shocking past encounters, and erotic schemes for the future. As Chantal recalls her student/mentor S&M relationship with a now- renowned poet and fends off drooling fellow espresso drinkers at the caf‚, Julia tells of seducing a dreadlocked 21-year-old, then flying off to China, where she's ravished in a park by a local contortionist and snake-charmer. Helen captivates her friends with an impossibly lush and funny fantasy of a seaside encounter with Rambo, then stuns them with the re-creation of a tryst with a truck driver. What these three women don't realize as they chat over their cappuccino is that quiet Philippa is taking mental notes, and that their secrets will soon appear in ``fictionalized'' form in a novel entitled Eat Me. Philippa is soon forgiven, though, as her friends note that she's as generous in print with her own past as with theirs. Already a bestseller in its native Australia (the author was raised in Connecticut but works as a freelance journalist in Sydney), this tossed salad of erotic scenarios charms as few examples of its genre ever have. ($50,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"Eat Me is the sexiest thing to come out of Australia since Mel Gibson. And it's funnier, too."
--Glamour

"[Jaivin's] light touch prompts even the steamiest sex scenes to soar into satire. . . . Jaivin never loses sight of her self-declared goal, which is to wrench the writing of erotica from its male practitioners, dress it up with style and sly humor, and restore it to women."
--Los Angeles Times

"Something like Waiting to Exhale (or Waiting to Swallow). . .You'll enjoy this tasty romp--you'd better, you slave--and you will thank Jaivin for the exquisite pleasure."
--Paper magazine -- Review

Customer Reviews

A taste of forbidden fruit!
Eat Me isn't your typical women's erotica -- it is a novel full of intelligent dialogue and sharp wit. The novel's about four friends from Sydney -- Phillipa, Helen, Julia and Chantal -- who get together to dish out juicy details of their latest romantic exploits. The stories are rather explicit and sensuous. However, will they continue to open up about their fantasies and exquisite tales when Phillipa tells them that she's writing an erotic novel?

Eat Me is like the forbidden fruit -- impossible to resist. This is one of the most original novels I have read in a long time. The vignettes within the novel are provocative and steamy. Jaivin is a wonderful writer of said genre and I look forward to reading more of her work...

Sex and food...together again
As far as commercial erotica goes, journalist and scholar Linda Jaivin's debut novel Eat Me is a unique excursion into the world of sensual tastes. It's 9 1/2 Weeks in a supermarket, an uninhibited look into the joys of calorie-laden, chocolate-coated ecstasy direct from the Land Down Under.

Unlike the array of gothic, violent erotic fiction that seems to be crowded shelves these days, Eat Me is upbeat, at time hilarious (a letter-switching incident comes to mind) and baffling (you'll never watch David Letterman the same way again, I guarantee it). Jaivin writes a playful, sexy novel hotter than jalepeno and as smooth as French Silk pie. Jaivin takes the eroticism of food to a new level with Eat Me and is certain to leave many mouths watering.

Eat Me says Read This!
This is a very entertaining story about a young female writer. She is writing erotica for woman and basing most of it on her friends. This story takes you through the lives of a number of thirty something lady with very active imaginations as well as sex lives. A laugh a minute - and don't let the first chapter freak you out. I was wondering what in the hell I had bought when I read it.