A review by danni_faith
The Sextine Chapel by Hervé Le Tellier

5.0

This short book is deceptively simple. These interlocking erotic short stories—and yes, this is erotica, albeit literary erotica—capture the interconnectedness of people by their lovers. Le Tellier characterizes each person by showing us their sex lives. In these moments we see them experience monotony, humor, tenderness, puzzlement, excitement, and, in rare cases, love. I think this is genius; few moments are more revealing about a person than when they use their body to give pleasure to another body—assuming pleasure is achieved.

I say this book is deceptively simple because it is easy to miss how the sexual partner influences the experience of sex. The Anna that is with Ben is not the Anna that is the other men. The Wendy with Vincent is not the Wendy with Xavier. My only wish is that there were not only heterosexual couplings.