Book #4 of 2005: Submission by Marthe Blau
Mockingly reviewed in last weekend’s Guardian, released a week before Belle de Jour; and, surprisingly, placed prominently amid the new fiction in WH Smith, this book begged me to read it, so I did.
Translated into a disjointed prose style that doesn’t quite emulate Colette and Anais Nin (with extra kink), Submission nonetheless has an unreal, floaty quality that makes Belle de Jour sound like Julie Walters’ version of Madame Cyn.
A distracting afternoon read that doesn’t entirely step beyond the edges of plausability, and with an ending to match the anti-climax of Story of O. Not the worst of its genre by any means.
4/5