Obsession: An Erotic Tale

Vanderbilt—socialite, artiste and pioneer of designer jeans—dips into the realm of spanking, thrusting, creaming and opening “as a flower toward the sun” with this dressed-up pulp erotica tale—Chip Kidd designed the striking cover, which features white-haired mannequins that (a certain type of person might be inclined to conclude) slightly resemble the host of CNN's AC360 . After renowned architect Talbot Bingham dies, his widow, Priscilla, designates their Maryland estate (“of all our estates it was the one I loved most”) as a museum. In going through Talbot's papers there, Priscilla discovers letters from a woman calling herself Queen Bee that describe a physical passion utterly foreign to Pris. Repulsed and fascinated by Bee's purple correspondence (“Look Master, no doubt you didn't insist she wax her mons as you do mine”), Priscilla falls into a “labyrinth of pain and misery” and becomes increasingly obsessed with Bee. As Vanderbilt nudges the two women together, the already soft-focused narrative becomes nearly hallucinatory. Sadly, this is no Story of O : the prose is terminally puffy, the sex has been done (and done and done) and Pris is an unendearing priss. (June)