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* "Beneath the Bridge" by Brother Cadfael (risky quickie) 9, 9, 9
* "Beneath the Bridge" by Brother Cadfael. Guest review by Mark Aster. --- This is a decently-well-written story about a couple who go out to a movie, but really to have sex, and overcome various barriers, both physical and spiritual, on the way to their orgasms. As the author's synopsis says, "Two lovers, one married, rendezvous beneath a bridge." They get to the nice dark place under the bridge, though, only after building their passion up during a movie, and after being discovered by the security cops the first time they park, in a mall parking garage. Watching this couple, so clearly hot for each other, trying to get to a good place to consummate, is a nice study in tension. If this story has faults, they stem mostly from the fact that it is part of a series of stories, and the series seems to be drawn from real life. It's dangerous to write from real life, since real life doesn't always make any narrative sense. Also the person who has experienced those bits of real life will sometimes not realize how much of the familiar background is in fact unfamiliar to the reader. I didn't really get why they felt they had to make love in the car (rather than going back to his place, say, or checking into a by-the-hour motel); and I didn't get why they had to worry about the time and what her husband might think, since her husband knows they're going out, and knows that they've been lovers. I'm sure the author knows, but I found myself wondering. The emotional thread running through this story is that the two were in love, or at least emotionally involved, once, but now they are just friends, or even acquaintances, that use each other for sex. The narrator says this several times, even harps on it. Probably the other stories in the series would convince me that it was true if I'd read them. In reading this story by itself, though, and ignoring the narrator's protestations to the contrary, I would have guessed that there was at least a deep mutual affection here, and probably love. While the narrator says several times that there isn't, the action doesn't convince me. On the other hand, I got the impression that the author believes what the narrator says (i.e. this wasn't intended as an unreliable-narrator piece). But anyway, I'm harping on with critique for the author, rather than review for the reader, again. Sorry! This is a nice hot MF story, in which the tension is built up nicely, and the sex described well. Recommended. Numbers? Probably straight nines, here. I'm really not good at numbers... |