A REVEALING REALISTIC NOVEL OF ONE DOMME’S LIFE
Review by Irv O. Neil
Femdom fiction, where women dominate men, has long been with us. In the early twentieth century, one of Japan’s greatest modern writers, Junichiro Tanizaki, dealt with subjects like foot fetishism and cuckoldry in books like Diary of a Mad Old Man and Naomi, and he was once a possible contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In noir crime fiction, femdom also pops up in the femme fatale characters. David Goodis’s Behold This Woman shows a powerful female conquering men with such popular seductive tropes (now seen in femdom videos) such as lipstick teasing, cigarette smoking, not to mention brutal slapping. The book was written in 1947 but to the discerning lover of femdom fiction, then as now, the “woman takes charge” thrills are there.
So, as a writer of femdom fiction myself, as well as Domme Addiction’s Twitter scribe, I’ve read a good deal of it, some the anonymous straightahead porn variety found online; some the literary or genre books I’ve mentioned above; as well as the many femdom erotica ebooks that are now being published by authors gaining prominence in the field. I’ve enjoyed lots of stimulating stories, but most of the ones I’ve read are primarily fantasy-oriented and rarely examine the deeper motivations of the characters who participate in femdom scenes. Which is fine—basic stimulation is, shall we say, most welcome for those contemplative hours in the privacy of one’s chambers… 😉
Still, the book I have long most admired in the femdom genre is Venus in Furs, the 1870 novel by the Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, he whose name inspired the word “masochism.” This book, both arousing and insightful, examines both the whys and wherefores of a man’s desire to be dominated—and how this desire takes him and his wife to the edge and then over the cliff of sexual and emotional adventure. In its essence, it’s a novel of “edging”—seeing how far a person can go before finally exploding, or even imploding. In Venus in Furs, roleplaying becomes reality at a heavy cost. Going to the edge is a constant theme in femdom fiction because the edge leading to ultimate climax is what all libidos, kinky or vanilla, constantly crave. It is only our consciences and personalities that might pull us back, stepping on the brakes when things get too wild or intense—perhaps mostly out of a fear of disaster if we “go too far.”
Indeed, most people would agree that characters “going to the edge” is the necessary stuff of good fiction in general.
Jane Boon’s new novel EDGE PLAY, published in paperback and ebook by Regan Arts., is a worthy addition to the shelf of femdom-oriented fiction. But the ways her heroine seeks her personal edges are more practical-minded than that of the frenzied anti-hero of Venus in Furs. While Masoch’s male protagonist Severin convinces his wife to treat him like a servant and cuckold to the point where she eventually abandons him in a veritable emotional catastrophe, Boon’s female protagonist Amy Lefevre has her head securely on her shoulders, primarily needs to make money, and gets an opportunity to do so as a dominatrix in 2008 Manhattan.
“Appearances can be deceiving” is one of the consistent themes of this enjoyable and fast-moving story that examines professional domination in the rarefied regions of the ultra-wealthy. Amy is an investment banker from a small town, working class background who, by her early thirties, has raised herself through smarts and a Harvard MBA up to a six figure income; then she loses her job during the 2008 recession that has the financial industry in ruins.
To help Amy survive, a friend of hers named Erika reveals a secret: she is not only the director of a chic NYC art gallery, but in the basement chambers below, supplements her oft-fluctuating income from the sale of paintings by merchandizing her skills as a highly paid dominatrix to men who can afford $2000-and-up sessions.
Erika offers Amy the opportunity to take over the job while Erika goes off to Europe to indulge a slave client’s rubber fantasies in exchange for a rare piece of contemporary art. Amy, who is basically vanilla and whose erotic adventurousness has previously been expressed by occasionally picking up men in tony hotel bars for quickie sex, is unsure whether she should accept the offer—both for reasons of reputation (what would happen if it eventually comes out that she worked as a domme?) as well as her uncertainty she can even properly wield the whips and ropes of a latex-clad roleplay tormentress. But with rent and heavy responsibilities such as the repayment of student loans, Amy decides to give it a try under Erika’s tutelage and instruction.
“This isn’t rocket science, but it requires a certain sensibility,” says Erika, reassuring a nervous, uncertain Amy. But having been successful in the most competitive arena of business, Amy is encouraged by Erika to transfer her executive confidence into femdominance.
Although modern in its narrative style, told in an engaging voice from Amy’s point-of-view as Erika (and a faithful sixtysomething client named Michael) show Amy the ins and outs of everything from costuming to makeup to heel height to stocking styles to the use of canes and bondage, the opening sections of EDGE PLAY fall into a classic erotic narrative pattern that goes back to the Renaissance: the “dialogue” in which an experienced, even jaded, woman (in this case, Erika) shows the seductive ways of the world to a less sophisticated friend (Amy, who definitely has innocence when it comes to kink). We readers enjoy voyeuristically many scenes where we overhear Erika enlightening Amy on the skills of dealing with submissive clients. There’s a pervy thrill in this peeking; even a touch of humiliation for submissively-inclined male readers as we get to overhear the professional secrets of dommes and learn the nitty-gritty mechanics of their physical and psychological techniques to skillfully manipulate clients toward explosive orgasms—earning big fees and customer loyalty in the process. For example, in one intriguing scene, Erika demonstrates the subtle degrees of helplessness that can be induced by binding a slave’s arms above his (or her) head. It is craft; science. In another, Erika praises Amy’s growing ability (by observing a client’s clenching jaw) to modulate orgasms according to the man’s bodily and emotional responses. It’s like the domme is being virtuosic on a human being instead of a piano.
But while cynical and practical Erika is not especially interested in the “why” of the men’s desires, the more compassionate and analytical Amy is curious; and even as she interacts with some clients and delivers the scenarios they desire, she wonders about the origins of their fantasies.
Are you ready for me, slave? (photo taken by slaveboysmith & featuring the amazing @AstroDomina)
Amy, who previously had worked in the shark-like environs of Wall Street, here sees powerful men at their most vulnerable—even though they are paying a lot of money for these femdom experiences, so it’s a play-acting kind of helplessness. Amy herself becomes something that is both inside her, and foreign to her: using the nom de domme of Catherine, she experiments with and experiences a previously unused part of herself. Still, tying up men for profit is not her natural state of being. Indeed, her vanilla nature persists, and even as she dominates with skill she keeps herself emotionally somewhat at arm’s length from the kinks she caters to, observing but not sinking completely into the psychosexual swamp. And, as she gets involved away from the dungeon with one of her clients, Dan, who has a very specific and puzzling bondage fantasy, she begins to see the ambiguities of relationships fostered between provider and client during sex work. For example, Amy asks herself: is Dan interested in her romantically because she helps him live out a very specific restraint scenario? The story eventually shows what lies underneath his tenderness toward her. Yes, appearances, and Amy’s interpretation of them, can be deceiving.
Throughout the novel there is an emphasis on Amy’s use of clothing and its various messages and symbolic meaning, which on the one hand appeals to the fashion-minded contemporary reader, female especially; but on the other hand advances the novel’s theme of appearances and how they can mess with our minds.
Amy also learns that appearances are deceptive when Erika’s sixtyish client Michael, who’d helped Erika train Amy for the job, goes from seeming at first a stereotypical groveling slave in the dungeon to a trusted and wise friend in reality as the story moves to its climax. Author Jane Boon humanizes the clients in her story, showing that they are more than naked minions in a fantasy.
Appearances really start to show their true nature when Amy’s ex-boss, who she already knows is two-faced when it comes to his marriage, is revealed to have deliberately sabotaged her efforts to get a new job in finance. So Amy uses the confidence she’s gained through being a dominatrix to get even with those who used and mistreated her on Wall Street.
Female Supremacy – photo courtesy of Goddess Ezada Sinn
EDGE PLAY is not an erotic fantasy novel. If it were, her ex-boss Jon would probably get his comeuppance in the dungeon, underneath a vengeful cane. Instead, it’s a realistic story that shows how Amy is strengthened by her experience as a domme and, while moving back into a vanilla life, utilizes her new-found prowess to right the wrongs that were done to her. But her revenge is taken not sexually but through legal maneuvers. It makes sense in terms of Amy’s character and the way Jane Boon has told her tale.
Dominatrices are performance artists with audiences of one-at-a-time, as the instructional dialogue between Erika and Amy points out; and EDGE PLAY shows us the stresses of the job as well as the mundane tasks of cleaning up after a session. But the emotional drama away from the dungeon is fascinating too. In the end, Amy discovers that her initial love interest, the brooding man of mystery who is submissive in bondage but extremely powerful in business, is more problematic, and not quite as romantic as a hard-bodied regular fella who doesn’t need to be tied up to get off, and who—initial appearances to the contrary—turns out to be her ideal lover even though in the past he didn’t seem very interesting at all.
Amy Lefevre goes to the edge of financial ruin, sexual adventure, and emotional and business betrayal in Jane Boon’s EDGE PLAY. On its basic level it’s a fun read for anybody interested in what being a dominatrix is like, written from the perspective not of a hardcore kinkster but a vanilla character who, in her life as well as in her financial career, is nonetheless willing to take on unusual challenges. Amy is a warm-hearted, thoughtful person who discovers more about what she likes and dislikes in people through the process of dominating men for money. So, although BDSM is its plot subject, in the final analysis EDGE PLAY is a humane novel of relationships as well as kink. I really enjoyed it and it goes up on my shelf alongside Tanizaki, Goodis, and Venus in Furs!
You can find EDGE PLAY at Amazon here:
Reviewer’s bio: Irv O. Neil, who has written Domme Addiction’s Twitter since 2016, is most recently the author of So You Want Me to Dominate You?, a femdom novella about how two people hook up while social distancing during the 2020 pandemic in New York City. It’s available as an e-book on Amazon.
The edition of Venus in Furs shown above is by the noted British femdom artist Sardax, who made his own translation of this famous novel. You can find it in e-book and hardcover formats on Amazon as well: