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* "Commencement" by Vickie Tern (coerced feminization)
10, 10, 10
* "Commencement" by Vickie Tern. The four pairs of husbands and wives have gathered at one of their houses to celebrate Super Bowl Sunday - the men in one room doing manly things like watching the game, drinking, belching, and making fun of their wives; and the women in a nearby room doing more cerebral things but hearing and being offended by the coarse discussion in the adjacent chamber. Something needs to be done to teach these assholes a lesson. So how do we get from what I've just described to "Commencement," the title of this story? The women develop a strategy to educate their husbands - not just to get even with them, but to rehabilitate them; and the completion of an educational program calls for a commencement. Hence the title. I'm not going to try to describe the entire rehabilitation program to you, except to say that it involves both hormones and careful training. And a butt plug - for those of you who know about such things. It's an ingenious program; read about it for yourself. The plan worked so well that one of the wives eventually began thinking she might rent her husband out as a call girl for perverts when the project was finished. The story is presented in the context of one woman talking to another. While telling the story, the narrator is functioning in a world in which stereotypical male and female roles have been reversed - for example, she's running the business that her husband used to operate, while she gives orders to an effeminate male secretary who is kind of dimwitted but functions well if she instructs him carefully and while her husband stays at home and keeps himself and the house pretty. The manuscript contains several typos, which I easily ignored. In addition, verb tenses were sometimes confused; but I assume the author was doing that on purpose to simulate the erratic conversational context in which the story was being presented. I have learned to expect from this author really clever plots with an eccentric feminist twist; and this story did not disappoint me. The plot is farfetched, but it's so crazy it just might work! The part I found hardest to believe was that the women could do this to their husbands without laughing in their faces. This is the fourth story I have read by this author, who has also written "Sooo Sweet," "Nice!", and "Girls' Night Out." I liked all three of the others better - but that's pretty high-class company! {I liked Julius Caesar best of all of Shakespeare's plays; but I wouldn't want him to feel that I was saying the plays he wrote after Caesar were "bad." Some acts are hard t ofollow.} My favorite has been "Nice!" What this one lacked was the surprise twists in the plot that I found in the eralier stories. Maybe I'm just catching on to the author's style and am not so easily surprised any more. One thing this author does extremely well is cover all the possible explanations for what is happening in an exceedingly complex plot; and she accomplishes this without making the story tedious. This is not a turn-me-on story; but it is a highly enjoyable, funny, thought-provoking tale. Another excellent story! Ratings for "Commencement" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 |