String of Pearls
              Edited by Tony Ayers
              Reviewed by Cerise Richards
 

  They may be in the depths of winter "Down Under", but fourteen young Australian authors have brought us a torrid compilation of short stories, which will make any beach chair sizzle. This is a time of year when we would rather not exercise our neurons, but would not mind stimulating other body parts, while we acquire some rays.
   So I have found the perfect little paperback with short-shorts, stories which run the gamut of fantasies, each less than twenty pages. These are tales which tell us about the lives of TV's and CD's on the other side of the Blue Marble. A few of their characters may seem just a bit foreign, like the surfies and puffs, but their stories will be immediately recognizable. We always knew they were there.  Although I don't know if it was intentional but the stories increase in sexual intensity from the first, which deals with a son whose mother has disappeared to the last called "Supercollider" where we aren't talking about atoms, just fetishes. The good part is that you can start at the last story and read backwards through "My Cock Lives in Hell" written by the Editor and Film-maker, Tony Ayres. Actually the Contributors are all published writers of novels, TV miniseries, journalism and recipients of many writing awards.
  The first story called "Her Aviary" finds a distraught family in the Outback trying to explain how their mother disappeared without a trace, but there is a complication.  There is no picture of her to be found anywhere. So the eldest son is given the task of describing his mother who just loved to dress up for self gratification. Her wigs and dresses are gone, but no matter how he lovingly describes her, there is no picture to distribute. He tries a police sketch artist who fails miserably. Finally he borrows a wig and dresses up as his mother and presents himself for a photo. Now this is really how she looks!
  Next we meet "Crystal", a "femme fatale", with all the right moves. She is sexy, alluring and provocative while doing her best work in her acting class. Her drama coach is smitten with her and just loves her role-playing. But at the end of class that day as everyone removes their costumes, we learn that the assignment this week was to portray the opposite sex in drag. The male actor leaves with his borrowed wig and dress and traces of his makeup still present. But his drama coach, obsessed with "Crystal" follows him home and begs to see "Crystal" recreated. Now the fireworks begin. It is sufficient to say that the teacher loses his job over this escapade.
  And then there is Holmes, a 16 year-old surfie boy, in "Tsunami", who runs away to the shore, where he meets "Sixty Nine", an 18 year old girl, in the men's loo. From this you can envision the cycle of drugs and sex with anyone who will support them. When they meet the dykes and queens in the bars, they learn that the only way to obtain free drinks is to come in drag. So they borrow and steal all the accoutrements to effect the look and life continues as the surf is always up for them.
   Did I mention "Supercollider", where a waitress works in black Mary Janes, a black bra showing through her gossamer shirt, and a tie. She then meets a gentleman each night to live out her shoe fetish and he does whatever sexual perversion comes to mind. Oh, there is the old tie me up - tie me down, hair cutting and simultaneous cross-dressing, but the words and descriptions leave nothing to the imagination. I actually haven't read anything like this since Henry Miller's "Tropics". So enjoy a little smut on vacation.
   Now Australia is a land of immigrants and when this advertisement appears in the Wanteds, "MAN FROM THE CARIBBEAN, TRAVELING AROUND AUSTRALIA, SEEKS DALLIANCE ALONG THE WAY", who should answer but a married TV who invites "The Man from the Caribbean" to his house. There Carlos meets Desiree, but realizes from a photo of a male out of drag with his wife and small daughter, that Desiree does not live alone. Now Desiree has sex on his mind and at its conclusion, his wife returns from shopping and his little girl plays outside. This bizarre story just goes on as the wife tries to be as hospitable as possible. Can you imagine'
   For a change of pace there is poetry in "Venice - The Aria" and an elegy to a French poet with French verse throughout. But who wants to translate French on a beach. So we turn to "My Cock Lives in Hell" by Tony Ayres, a full 20 pages and the longest of the shorts. The narrator is married to a good Catholic girl, Serina, but the marriage of two years is sexually stale and he is on the prowl to satisfy his desires. After contemplating where is will get his next lay, he is mesmerized by a thin Chinese woman in her silk Chinoise dress in a local bar. Finally after trying to solicit her he fails to go home with her. Then one night at a Chinese restaurant, he sees a male waiter with the same features and follows him home. When his China-Doll emerges he solicits her again and this time is successful. So the sexual encounter is fully described in white heat with the protagonist pushing and pulling until the lady has a change of heart and shrieks "Get out, get out". So our hero retreats to his wife and begs for her to take him in. He has had enough sex for one night.
    Well, while I have described five of what I consider the best of the book's tales, others may have a different view and consider the French phrase from "Silhouette" more apropos for this time of year. "L'insolence de l'ete me tu qu'il neige. The insolence of summer is killing me, if only it would snow." Next month I will review "The Danish Girl", a bit more enlightening and more contemplative. Luv Ya, Cerise