Subject: Review: Robert Irwin's _Prayer-Cushions of the Flesh_

From: "Paul S. Jenkins" <[email-masked]>
Date: 20 Apr 2001 11:57:10 -0400

Prayer-Cushions of the Flesh, Robert Irwin
	Review Copyright (c) 2001 Paul S. Jenkins

Seeing the title, _Prayer-Cushions of the Flesh_, the reader might get the
idea that Robert Irwin's novella contained an above-average amount of sex.
The reader would be correct.

Set in a harem, the story is an Arabian fantasy concerning the days
immediately following the protagonist's release from the 'Cage' -- a place
where the sons of concubines are kept until they are sent for.  In a
reversal of the conventional notion of a Sultan keeping a harem full of
voluptuous young wives, this harem contains women who use each man who
leaves the Cage as their sexual plaything.

Our hero, Orkhan, newly released from the Cage, believes that he is now
Sultan, and that the harem is there for _his_ pleasure. The women,
however, have other ideas.

Irwin spares no detail in his relation of Orkhan's fortunes, his pleasures
and his pains, so this is definitely not a book for children, despite the
fairy-tale setting and the straight-forward narrative style.

The best part is when Orkhan is taken to meet Emerald -- a voluntary
eunuch -- who tells a story of such fantastical imagination, the strange
goings-on throughout the rest of the book seem normal by comparison.

_Prayer-Cushions of the Flesh_ is a quick read -- which is appropriate, as
the events of the story unfold, and conclude, with similar rapidity.

%A Irwin, Robert
%T Prayer-Cushions of the Flesh
%I Dedalus
%C Sawtry, Cambs.
%D 1997
%G ISBN 1 873982 63 1
%P 140 pp.
%O paperback GBP 6.99

Paul S. Jenkins | More reviews at:
Portsmouth UK | http://www.rev-up-review.co.uk