Like its predecessor, Brown Sugar, this anthology of African-American erotica edited by Essence
magazine contributor Taylor explores every permutation of adult sexuality—straight, gay, lesbian and some decidedly unconventional group sex—with a combination of hip-hop slang and high-brow sensibility. In Willie Perdomo's "Ella by Starlight," allusions to Jean-Michel Basquiat bump up against references to the Notorious B.I.G. Many of the pieces weave serious questions of racial and sexual identity into their racy scenarios. Rebecca Carroll's "Mr. Man," for instance, deftly examines the plight of a young black woman, adopted and raised by white parents, whose skin throbs with "perversely tangled envy, grafted from a deep and silent well of inexperienced blackness" whenever she encounters other African-Americans. Nicole Bailey-Williams's "Zoe" is candid in its depiction of a beautiful but insecure college student who experiments with lesbianism, and Michael A. Gonzales's "Simply Beautiful" observes both the sensual and the sinister in a chance encounter between a self-involved filmmaker and an aging barroom diva. There is some old-fashioned raunch as well. "It wasn't like I was collecting dividends on my pussy," remarks the protagonist of Zane's "Mr. Good Lay" as she prepares to end three years of celibacy. And Sandra Kitt's "Passing Through" revisits that time-honored erotica staple, a tryst between a stranded motorist and her mechanic. There's something here for every reader, especially those who enjoyed Taylor's previous collection. (Jan.)
