In the Box Called Pleasure

These gutsy and postfeminist stories will elicit the shock of recognition from women and may reveal to men something about the further regions of the female psyche.

By turns graphic and funny, these urban tales present characters who are teetering on the edge. Indifferent or absent lovers, too much alcohol, too many cigarettes, obsession, paranoia, a desire that is always fresh in spite of the facts — this is the macabre landscape of these very unusual and unrestrained works.

In "Reading Sontag," Addonizio invades and recasts Susan Sontag's essay "The Pornographic Imagination" while describing a monumentally failed relationship. In "The Gift," a woman finds a dildo on the street and is magically transformed into a man.

This book is the unique product of a poet with a gift for a kind of fiction that is full of formal bravado, strange incident, and a stranger but very human pathos. These are fictions to prepare us for the real millennium.

"Addonizio braves Mary Gaitskill's stomping ground, sketching portraits of troubled women who mistake a semblance of sexual chemistry for love and pay a dear price for their error in judgment." Village Voice

"Kim Addonizio's fearless, original voice is simultaneously edgy and tender, dark and light. She writes sensitively and intelligently about sex and the human condition, with a clear and lucid eye. In the Box Called Pleasure is a book to read, savor, reread and savor again and again." Janice Eidus

"It is impossible to read In the Box Called Pleasure and not admire Kim Addonizio." Pop Matters

"Graphic and funny, these urban tales present characters who are teetering on the edge." American Book Review

"While the characters' problems are varied...their voices are disconcertingly similar. Addonizio's phrasing is provocative, and her settings range from seedy bars to surreal psychological escapes." Publishers Weekly

"Few shocks and little value." Kirkus Reviews

By turns graphic, funny, and moving, thes urban tales present characters who are teetering on the edge. Indifferent or absent lovers, drinking and smoking too much, loneliness, paranoia, a desire that is always fresh. In spite of the facts, rage, and obsession — this is the macabre landscape of these unrestrained stories.

Kim Addonizio has received two NEA Fellowships, a Pushcart Prize, and a Commonwealth Club Poetry Medal. She is the author of three books of poetry from BOA Editions. Her writing has appeared in Paris Review, Ploughshares, Gettysburg Review, and Penthouse and in several anthologies including The Pushcart Prize Anthology, Catholic Girls, A New Geography of Poets and It's Only Rock and Roll.