Kate Zambreno

Local newcomer Agate Publishing, focusing on Afrocentric literature, scored big with its acquisition of Jill Nelson's first foray into fiction, "Sexual Healing," for its rookie season. The bestselling author ("Volunteer Slavery," "Straight, No Chaser,") turns her reporter's eye to black female sexual politics in this tale of two childhood friends, now mid-career professionals living in San Francisco, who have done the marriage thing and just want a good lay with a little romance. So Lydia, the daughter of a Baptist preacher and spa owner, and Acey, the divorced advertising executive, scheme to open up A Sister's Spa, a high-class brothel in Reno servicing black women's every need, to the delight of their clientele and the dismay of the religious right. Alternatively told by both friends' point of view, Nelson populates her novel with memorable characters, from the more goody-goody Lydia to the sexually aggressive stiletto-heeled Acey to the no-bullshit bank teller LaWanda to the dead husband that hangs out in Lydia's panty. She also packs the book with raunchy, steamy sex scenes that shed light on middle-aged women's appetites. Call it "Waiting to Exhale" with heavy breathing, or an African-American "Fear of Flying," minus the planes and psychobabble. But what "Sexual Healing" does best is wittily and caustically examine sex in the city for fabulous urban women pushing forty, from buying that perfect red dress at the sales racks of Loehmann's to encounters with that sexy UPS worker.

Sexual Healing

By Jill Nelson

Agate Publishing, $23.95, 318 pages.

(2003-06-18)

Also by Kate Zambreno

Tip of the Week
In his debut collection, "Short People," Joshua Furst, winner of the Nelson Algren Award for Fiction, examines childhood and its discontents with utmost empathy, refusing to sentimentalize the harrowing process of growing up.
(2003-06-11)

Till death, or whatever, do us part
I never entertained the fantasy of the white wedding dress, nor did I have a mother breathing biological clock voodoo down my neck.
(2003-06-11)

Starving artist
Caroline Knapp died last year at the age of 42 from lung cancer one month after her diagnosis, and it's difficult to read her posthumously published "Appetites: Why Women Want" without being poignantly aware that she was unconsciously near the end while so close to fully realizing herself.
(2003-06-04)

Clothes calls
Back in 1998, when the fashion designer resided in Los Angeles, camisoles she stitched together out of sari fabric brought back from a trip to Bali adorned the likes of Madonna and sold out at Fred Segal in four days. Then the Indonesian economy collapsed, crushing her nascent business just as it was taking off.
(2003-05-28)

Tip of the Week
(2003-05-07)

Author Visit
(2003-05-07)

Tip of the Week
(2003-04-30)

Author Visit
(2003-04-30)

Fine young culinary maestros
(2003-04-30)

Tip of the Week
(2003-04-22)

Baby, if you've ever wondered
(2003-04-22)

Tip of the Week
(2003-04-15)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment