In 1996 Daphne Merkin exploded in controversy with her New Yorker essay, "Spanking: A Romance," in which she described her erotic fascination with being spanked. This richly thoughtful and cosmopolitan collection of pieces ranges across the spectrum of her interests, from women's fascination with scarfs to the ambivalent charms of lesbianism; from interview/portraits of Martin Scorsese and Norman Mailer to ruminations on the Biblical books of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon; from tanning, thinning, and breast reduction surgery to her girlhood dreams of Hitler and Jewish self-hatred. A marvelous series of short essays that first appeared in "American Film," "Esquire," "The NY Times Magazine," "Mirabella," "Partisan Review," and many others.
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The review of this Book prepared by David Loftus
