Touching Fire: Erotic Writings by Women

In an effort to extol contemporary women's diverse sexuality without being pornographic, the editors of this anthology have made sex a drag. The poems, novel excerpts and short fictions cover a wide range of erotic experiences--gay, straight, solitary--enjoyed by protagonists of varied race, age and body type. The sex is oral, genital, rectal, even bestial--a bull, a porpoise and a cat are featured in separate stories. Licking occurs frequently, most often in California; otherwise the writing is mixed in both subject and quality; the best are pieces by Kageyama, Olds, Ginghofer, Laux, Brant, Luria-Sukenick; the worst are amateurish. The whole, meant to celebrate ``the inherent and life-affirming place of eros in women's lives,'' is as satisfying as a series of one-night stands. (Jan.)