Kinkorama: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Perversion

A collection of first-person postcards from the outer edge of sexuality, these candid, insightful essays recount the author's journey into the covert, subterranean world of gay male fetishism. Sheppard, a sex advice columnist and co-editor of the erotic anthologies Rough Stuff and Roughed Up, offers an everyman approach to public sex, fisting, bondage, S&M parties and leather contests--all the usual, predictable suspects for this erotic subgenre. But it's the author's unapologetic moxie when confessing his preferences (on foot play: no athlete's foot, but feet ripe with a""natural tang doesn't hurt"") and embarrassing first-times (on verbal abuse: be creative and steer clear of the""cliche-filled highway of homophobia"") that makes this collection so winning (for adventurous readers, anyway). More anecdotal than advisory, Sheppard's dispatches are a vivid patchwork of keen observations on human sexuality; perhaps most notable is Sheppard's gentle warning to avoid letting fetishism""substitute the part for the whole.""""What should be a broadening of sexual horizons can become a tightening shackle,"" he warns. Sheppard muses that kink is referred to as""playing"" rather than""having sex"" or""making love""; it's a reminder, he says, to""have fun with our bodies,"" and that unlike""mature sexuality,"" whose goal is to""make something,""""play has no aim but itself."" Sheppard mixes such cool observations with over-the-top anecdotes about foot fetishists and leather contests (one contestant plays""Peter Pan-sexual, flying with a transgendered Wendy to Leather-Leather Land"") in a wild""travelogue"" through""Kinkland.""