"Conversation" by Sandmann (bd654@scn.org). Goddammit! I really hate it when this happens. Here it is - August 30. I have a busy weekend ahead of me; and so I prepared my Top 15 List for August ahead of time earlier this evening. Then I decided to read one last story before going to bed. I guess I could just delay this review until the next issue; but then it might be more difficult for readers to find the story in the postings. But I simply refuse to bump any more good stories off my Top 15 list for August. We'll just have to live with sixteen stories in this month's Top 15!

This story begins as a conversation between two women about the sex life of one of them, who mentions that she is sexually uninhibited. A stranger at a nearby table jumps into the conversation and asks her to explain what she means by "uninhibited." Her friend leaves, and the woman continues the discussion with the stranger. This is a fascinating combination of a theoretical discussion and sexual fantasies. It's a Platonic dialogue run amuck!

As you know, I enjoy "discovering" that various a.s.s. authors are "really" someone else. For example, I have disucssed at length my theory that Deirdre is actually Sherwood Anderson reincarnated. More recently, I speculated that Harper Lee is the real author of "Tomboy," which was falsely attributed to Jordan Shelbourne. If I recall correctly, I once even exposed J.D. Salinger posting on a.s.s. In the present issue of CR, Plainman is obviously a pseudonym for John Updike. I also suspect that some authors on this newsgroup post under more than one name. The present story is a case in point. This story bears an uncanny stylistic resemblance to the work of another excellent author whose work I have reviewed here in the past. However, since the author may have some reason for wanting to conceal this dual identity, I am not going to disclose the other name under which I think this author writes. If you want to 'fess up or speculate, you can contact me by e-mail.

This is a throughly enjoyable story!