In an attempt to give readers a greater understanding of the sources and inspirations of sex, Cattrall, aka the seductive Samantha Jones on Sex and the City
, has wound up producing a weird mix of art book and sex manual, addressing the roots of desire, messaging, arousal, fantasy and "release." The text isn't written in the first person (in fact, there are references to "we"), and Cattrall's well-known sexiness isn't glaringly on display, with the exception of grainy images of her smirking as she holds an oyster, or dressed up as a dominatrix, floating in what appear to be Photoshopped clouds. Other pictures feel like stock photography (indeed, the credits at book's end confirm this): a photo of a zucchini next to a paragraph on nicknames for the penis; a sepia-toned shot of two feet crossed, with a daisy tucked between two toes, alongside a section on "lust and laughter." The same interview subjects (identified by first name and a head shot only) are quoted throughout; readers learn, for example, that Natasha doesn't like the way her vagina looks, nor is she attracted to "the metrosexual, hair-product type guy." Master works of art—a carving of a vulva found in a cave in France; Antonio Canova's marble sculpture of lovers embracing—are used to beautiful effect, but don't help the book rise from fluff to something of substance. (Oct.)
