Belly Fruit

Britta Santowski is a freelance writer in Victoria, B.C.

Scantily clad in the guise of a murder mystery, Belly Fruit tells the
tale of steamy and destructive relationships. Categorized as erotica,
the novel is a well-written, entertaining book for the average escapist
reader. But while the content is provocative, it doesn’t surrender
anything. It merely lingers at the skin’s surface.

The characters are neatly packaged. Dead is rich Nancy Rider, an incest
survivor turned S&M artist/entrepreneur who specializes in blood sports
and more. In mourning is female heroine, George, a nonmonogamous
bisexual struggling writer. In love with George is the covertly violent
(because he, too, was abused) Jean Paul. Enter Zoey, a sweet, skinny,
prairie girl whose starved body is worshipped, desired, and experienced
by all in the cast, including Zoey’s psychologically oppressive and
sexually incompetent ex-lover and his best friend. Only dear dead Nancy
doesn’t get a turn at this sexually curious sweetie.

The story waltzes through a litany of all-too-familiar beliefs: bulimia
is the best way for women to preserve the sexualized prepubescent state;
women are the best sexual educators for other women; men are sexually
obtuse, drooling pigs; super-imposed childhood incest results in
self-imposed S&M (for women); sexual encounters that objectify men
explain their perpetuation of sexual violence. The list goes on. Belly
Fruit does not set out to challenge these status quo beliefs, it simply
tells a sometimes seductive (depending on your tastes) story.