Story of O

This is a difficult book, and the very polarized reviews show it – a fictional and yet impressively honest and unashamed portrait of a woman who is submissive not as an attempt to spice up an otherwise insignificant sex life for 15 minutes, but as the very fabric she is woven out of as a human being. The affluent men running a secret Parisian sex society are invented, the fabric is not.

Of course, those who picked up this book to get their rocks off on erotica remain disappointed by the lack of extended fornication, and while the book is exceedingly graphic, it isn't parading endless pornographic scenes around in front of the reader.

Almost as disappointed as those who express their commitment to feminism primarily by telling women how they should lead their lives and which kinks are acceptable for them to have (how ironic, truly).

But if we make it past all of these hurdles and can accept O for what she longs to be, perhaps we learned what Pauline Réage had to teach.