I read this book over the course of one and a half years, at the rate of one story every couple of months. Considering this (and my generally bad memory) it is no surprise that I do not remember much of the first few stories in this anthology, and cannot really say anything substantial about the whole thing. Although I suppose it is somewhat telling that it took me so long to get through the whole thing in the first place…

Still, there is one thing I have noticed that might bear mentioned, namely that either the title is slightly misleading or that the editor has a rather broad concept of erotica that includes pretty much anything where sex plays any kind of significant role even if it is not depicted in any detail. Personally, I would say this is so not much an overview of American Erotica but an overview of the diversity of sexuality in the USA at the end of the twentieth century. Which undoubtedly is very important and interesting… it’s just not (or not necessarily) erotica.

That apart, I guess this collection has the usual mixture of the good, the bad, and somewhere in between. I remember the story by Pat Califia having been a low point and the one by Leslie Feinberg a low one, but in retrospect I have to admit that I’m left feeling pretty lukewarm over this.