"Sandy" by Ann Douglas (annd@pop.tiac.net). Last week I said that readers "enjoy Ann's stories because her characters act the way we think we would act (or would like to act) in similar situations." Actually, I have to refine that statement to make it applicable to the present story. I have never followed a hooker home or made love to one in a train station, nor would I like to. On the other hand, I CAN understand how a woman could act that way; and so I'll still give Ann credit for writing realistic stories about normal people.

The plot begins with Sandy becoming attached to the hooker (Jasmine), as described in the preceding paragraph. Things escalate when Sandy's clod of a boyfriend rudely breaks up with her and she needs companionship. You can probably guess where this is going - or at least you think you can. Read the story and find out.

One of the reasons I like Ann's stories is because they are generally free of racial and ethnic stereotyping. For example, in the present story Jasmine is Hispanic, and there is no suggestion that she is in any way inferior to Sandy - in spite of the fact that Jasmine is the prostitute and Sandy (who I presume is white anglo-American) is the executive. So it was with some surprise that I read that Jamal (Jasmine's black boyfriend - not the stereotypical pimp) had "the largest cock Sandy had ever seen." I guess I should keep in mind that statements like this are meant to be complimentary to the owner of the cock; but the notion of Black men having "monster cocks" is simply a myth. People who promote this stereotype may be advancing a notion that treats a large group of people as being in some way more "animalistic" than "normal" people.

I have never directly examined the penis sizes of a sample of Black men; but my brother-in-law has. That's because he is a black man. After one of my previous reviews in which I ranted on this topic, I managed to get him into a conversation. He's super-religious and would never understand how I could read these stories or write these reviews, and so I told him about the stereotype that I had "heard on Geraldo." He got genuinely upset and started quoting valid medical research to me that stated that there is no significant difference in organ size between average members of the white and black races. I am pretty sure he's right. When he calmed down, he said he has verified the published facts by direct but discreet observation in locker rooms and in showers. It's his opinion that "insecure" white people try to set up the stereotype of the Black male as a stud in order to scare white women or to dehumanize Blacks in general. I see his point.

In Ann's defense, if she wanted to have somebody have a monster cock, I guess that could be a Black man as well as a White man. So I won't put her on my Bad List. Nor will I tell my brother-in-law about her.

Having been a tad negative, let me become more positive. I think Ann does an excellent job of presenting bdsm activities in a way that makes them seem enjoyable to outsiders. I don't have the same fantasy that Sandy has - maybe my husband or I WILL get that fantasy someday - but the domination activities seemed both hot and interesting to me. I came away with the impression that this was a normal person enjoying something that was a little different from what I myself enjoy. I do NOT get that impression from all bdsm stories.

Finally, this story contains an example of a minor mistake about which I think author's should be more careful. The entire story is told from Sandy's point of view. Then suddenly we find these sentences: "Jasmine felt her orgasm about to burst. She could tell that is wasn't going to be a record breaker, but then again she hadn't expected it to be." There's no way Sandy could have known what Jasmine's feelings were, and it would have been better to stick with Sandy's point of view. The author gets back to the proper perspective almost immediately: "Sandy soon could feel Jasmine's body shudder as her legs pressed tighter against her face. While she wasn't a gusher as Sandy sometimes was, there was enough of an eruption for Sandy to feel proud of her achievement." It IS OK to take the viewpoint of the omniscient author - to write as if the author knows the feelings and actions of absolutely everybody in the story. However, in this case Ann clearly intended to write from Sandy's point of view, and it would have been easily possible to do so; all she had to do was describe what Sandy saw or felt Jasmine doing, instead of shifting to the inside of Jasmine's head. The same problem occurs a few other times in this story.