Lick My Books, Slave
05/02/2006
Warner-Cohen, Kimberly. Sex, Blood and Rock 'n' Roll. Brooklyn, NY: Ig Publishing, 2006. 220 p.
Ah, the New York City club scene in the 1990’s. Kimberly Warner-Cohen manages to capture the feel in her debut novel, Sex, Blood and Rock 'n' Roll. I, myself, have frequented several of the clubs mentioned in her novel, most frequently the infamous Bank, which she gives a cursory mention, and I had to read the book twice to make sure her recreation of that scene was as good as I thought it was at first glance. This was not a problem, because Sex, Blood and Rock 'n' Roll reads very quickly.
If there is a knock against the novel, it is that it is not for the faint of heart, to be sure. Warner-Cohen’s prose is very much in the tradition of Brett Easton Ellis’s (American Pyscho). Some of her more visceral scenes intermingling sex and death are somewhat reminiscent of Poppy Z. Brite’s Exquisite Corpse. If you are familiar with either of those tomes, you will realize this is not the book to send to Aunt Martha for Xmas.
The story concerns Cassie, a NYC bartender who lives with her musician boyfriend Dev. She has a very unsavory fantasy life, perhaps triggered by childhood abuse. She falls into a Dominatrix gig, and finds, after a shaky start, that she has an affinity for her new work. When a work related incident causes her to miscarry an unplanned pregnancy, her fantasy life begins to overtake reality, with lethal results for some who come in contact with her, particularly in a professional capacity.
The story is told in a disaffected, first person narrative form, an echo of Brett Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero. This works well, for the most part. As a device to display the proper tone, as well as to move the story along quickly, Warner-Cohen often clips sentence structures, which works generally; however, at times I found myself mourning the loss of a subject at the beginning of a sentence. Also, Warner-Cohen tends to take the story from the present to a dream or memory sequence with little or no fanfare, which can be a bit jarring. Having stated this, I’ll now say that any quarrels I have with this book are quite minor.
One of the more intricately crafted depictions in the book is of the relationship between Cassie and Dev, previous to her personality change. It shows how fragile a caring, intimate relationship can be in an environment that is intrinsically hostile to such a relationship (in this case the 90’s New York alternative club scene). And it gives some weight to the loss experienced when Cassie goes off the deep end.
Warner-Cohen is a resident New Yorker, who acquired her BFA in Writing while working as a professional dominatrix, so she obviously has some familiarity with Cassie’s chosen profession. As Cassie learns her new trade, she brings the reader with her, and the result is a crash course in the S&M, B&D game. Again, there is little left to the imagination, so the squeamish may want to beg off some of these sections.
Finally, there are those who may have issues with the ending. I did not, and I wish to say as little about it as possible, so as not to spoil the book for those of you brave enough to go out and buy it.