In the White Hotel

Linda Perry is a senior policy analyst at the Ontario Ministry of
Colleges and Universities.

This book of erotic drawings complements a series of poems excerpted
from D.M. Thomas’s novel of the same name. The poem, written in the
first person, depicts the bizarre dreamlike sexual fantasies of an opera
singer that she recounts to her analyst, Freud. The analyst also happens
to be the father of her lover, for a double Oedipal whammy.

The relentless lovemaking of the couple is in counterpoint to a series
of gruesome deaths—contrived to befall by earth, air, fire, and water.
The very sexual experience is highly visceral, replete with the woman
dripping blood and her breasts “flowering milk.” At one point, for
example, the chef brings a cup to the impassioned couple, coupling in
the dining room, to treat the guests to various amorous dairy products.
The couple is joined at various points by other guests, who share in
their revels. The author reminds us that “no one was selfish in the
White Hotel.”

The poem has the breathless frenzy of a compulsive jackhammer
sexuality, where orgiastic screams combine with the agonized screams of
the dying. The drawings are immensely powerful.

While the book is very beautifully produced, the explicit nature of
both the poetry and the drawings renders it unsuitable for its otherwise
natural setting, on the coffee table.