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The latest addition to our Reviews Section is a piece by regular reviewer Vincent Francone on Oksana Zabuzhko’s Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex, which is translated from the Ukrainian by Halyna Hryn and available from Amazon Crossings.

Here’s the opening of Vince’s not-entirely-positive review:

Reading Oksana Zabuzhko���Ĵ�ý�s Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex is like having bad sex. You���Ĵ�ý�re not enjoying yourself but you don���Ĵ�ý�t necessarily feel like stopping. Your mind wanders, you wonder how long until it���Ĵ�ý�s over, and you may even fake a response just so it���Ĵ�ý�ll stop. After all, it���Ĵ�ý�s late and you need to get some sleep.

If this seems an unfair analogy, I apologize, but so much of the book is about sex, both in terms of sexuality and gender, that it seems apt to think of the book in this way. If I may (pun alert) extend my analogy: the book, like bad sex, is hard to forget because of the tease and lack of climax. It presents stimulating ideas but fails to focus on them with any sustained energy, leaving the reader frustrated.

Clearly I am in the minority; the book was a bestseller in the Ukraine and the author���Ĵ�ý�s reputation was cemented by its publication. It seems an important book, worthy of translation and publication here in these United States, though one might argue that the subject matter (feminine sexuality and gender norms) dictates the book���Ĵ�ý�s importance more than the actual book. Perhaps too many other writers have mined this territory before, thus the ���Ĵ�ý�controversy���Ĵ�ý� mentioned on the book���Ĵ�ý�s back cover is relative. In the Ukraine, a frank exploration of feminine sexuality might be bold, but nothing in the book seemed shocking to these jaded eyes.

Click here to read the whole piece.