Staff Pick
Thank god Gabriela Wiener wrote this book, so that I don't have to do any of the things in it! I don't have to spend a weekend with a sex guru and his seven wives, I don't have to visit an upscale swinger's club with my husband, I don't have to be a pants-less prop in a revered dominatrix's demonstration. But more than that, I don't have to face my deepest fears and insecurities. I don't have to look inside myself and record what I find for all the world to see. Instead, I can lose myself in Wiener's smart, raw, fiercely honest voice and see the world through her eyes. Sexographies is an unfiltered look at people on the edges, lives spent balancing on a knife's blade. Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The English-language debut of renowned Peruvian "gonzo" journalist Gabriela Wiener, Sexographies is an eye-opening, kamikaze journey through the unexplored corners of human sexuality by one of its most exciting chroniclers. In fierce and fearless first-person accounts, Gabriela Wiener records infiltrating the prisons of Lima, participating in sexual exchanges in swingers clubs, traveling the dark paths of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris to live with transvestites and prostitutes, undergoing a complicated process of egg donation, taking part in a ritual of ayahuasca ingestion in the Amazon jungle, and slipping into the bedroom of the porn superstar Nacho Vidal. At the same time, she takes us on inward journeys, exploring themes such as immigration, maternity, fear of death, the loneliness of hotel rooms, ugliness, threesomes, the mysterious number eleven, and geographical distance from friends. Fortunately, this extreme gonzo heroine comes out unscathed and is able to tell her story. She does so with a sharpness and vision worthy of the best masters of New Journalism's golden years. A reckless and exciting journey through the most savage side of narrative journalism.
Synopsis
"No other writer in the Spanish-speaking world is as fiercely independent and thoroughly irreverent as Gabriela Wiener. Constantly testing the limits of genre and gender, Wiener's work ... has bravely unveiled truths some may prefer remain concealed about a range of topics, from the daily life of polymorphous desire to the tiring labor of maternity." --Cristina Rivera Garza, author of The Iliac Crest
In fierce and sumptuous first-person accounts, renowned Peruvian journalist Gabriela Wiener records infiltrating the most dangerous Peruvian prison, participating in sexual exchanges in swingers clubs, traveling the dark paths of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris in the company of transvestites and prostitutes, undergoing a complicated process of egg donation, and participating in a ritual of ayahuasca ingestion in the Amazon jungle--all while taking us on inward journeys that explore immigration, maternity, fear of death, ugliness, and threesomes. Fortunately, our eagle-eyed voyeur emerges from her narrative forays unscathed and ready to take on the kinks, obsessions, and messiness of our lives. Sexographies is an eye-opening, kamikaze journey across the contours of the human body and mind.