Maxim Jakubowski’s novel Confessions of a Romantic Pornographer is outstanding if for no other reason than because he understands that sex comes from people, as opposed to a lot of porn where the authors seem to believe that people are literally created by sex.  Sex is an important part of human nature and it does indeed influence the rest of our lives in myriad as yet unclear ways.  Nonetheless, a character whose thoughts and feelings are entirely driven by sexuality is little more than a talking species of appetite with no memory and thus, no consciousness.  Now I don’t doubt that we can find any number of people who fit that description in modern life, but I am equally obliged to say that such a creature is unworthy of fiction.  Why?  It is because they are literally too boring for words.

Mr. Jakubowski has given us an impeccably detailed, raw, and often obscenely graphic landscape of the body sexual personified in a young woman who is part detective, part masochist and sometime sociopath.  For non-specific reasons she is in search of a dead writer’s last manuscript. She goes through a succession of people, most of them, twisted, narcissistic and middle-aged, in search of his work.  Have no fear though, whatever their deviance, kink or sheer lack of affect, they have met their match in the beautiful Cornelia.

She does indeed give them what they want in every form imaginable, often at considerable cost to herself, except in one respect. She makes herself available to them sexually, but not personally.  She seduces but does not woo.  She provides and exceeds every bit of the pleasure that her body and distant charm promise, but they are never anything much to her, other than necessary steps on the path to her objective.  As such, it is a very chilling story although an endlessly fascinating one as well. 

Much of that arises from Mr. Jakubowski’s authentic and deep talent as a writer.  He can for example, talk about his heroine’s cunt or her anus any number of times and each view of these openings leads us to a new understanding of them.   That may sound facetious but I mean no irony whatever.  His writing reinvents the subject of sex and sexuality.  These qualities so truly emerge from characters whose presence can be felt.  These are not just urges, they are people, and it is perhaps that very fact that makes them so scary.

Jakubowski’s style is both precise and fluid.  Detail brings this book to life because the author has thought through the psychochemical process of erotic response.  Thus the book is truly sexy as well as erotic in the thrilling, often awkward way that the body works in reality.  Fantasy works on the flesh and then the flesh enhances the fantasy for Jakubowski’s characters.  That in turn constantly raises the stakes sexually for what is actually going on between them. 

Structurally this novel is wonderful because it shifts point of view constantly from chapter to chapter.  You have to actively read this book and pay attention to stay with it and get its full effect.  It is an enormous source of excitement frankly to read someone once again who can shift focus clearly and effortlessly rather than beating out the action from a single point of view like a first grade music teacher who has recently discovered the metronome.   Humans are fundamentally irrational, especially about sex, and this book retains clarity without reducing character to cartoon figures.