Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Schorb's offbeat plot—following a young male author who lives with five forceful women—is clever and amusing, though its intense energy wanes somewhat as the story progresses.
Prose: Schorb employs several made up words to describe various acts—some of which are wildly funny—and his prose is as witty as it is creative.
Originality: The novel's humor is entertaining, but Schorb delves into deeper issues as well, although those moments are often concealed behind a comic veneer. This blend of insight and playfulness makes for a highly unique read.
Character/Execution: Serge, Juanna Donna Lorca, and her twin brother Hector—who eventually transforms into Juanna Donna's sister, Lola Fabiola—are engaging, charismatic characters. Many of the other females, with the exception of Amanda, are amusing but unquestionably one-sided in their views of men.
Date Submitted: April 20, 2023
R & R: A Sex Comedy
E. M. Schorb
Hill House New York
9780578474717, $18.00, HC, 248pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: Serge Bering-Strait, a young poet who lives with his activist mother and four aunties in a Greenwich Village brownstone, has just gone to work as copywriter for "Women's Omnibus" magazine. Serge would much rather have remained up in his garret room writing poetry, but his mother, Dagmar, and his Auntie Janet have insisted that it's high time he got out into the world, that it isn't natural to be a recluse at twenty-three!
In this New York work-a-day situation of the swinging Sixties, Serge finds himself the object of unwanted sexual advances from his lady boss editor. It is all too upsetting to this young, shy, poet. He has spent his whole life under the thumbs of five very tough, aggressive women and now the additional pressure from Editor Battle, out to deflower him, brings him to a crossroads.
He must assert himself! In the beginning, he has only one true supporter in this struggle: Juanna Donna Lorca, his childhood transsexual nanny-cum general housekeeper for the family, who is partial to flamenco dresses.
Serge, somewhat inspired by his love of the classics, and perhaps somewhat inspired by the idea of poetic justice, and simply pressured to let off steam, begins a novel -- Resurgius.
Coincidentally, or not, he begins his novel immediately after meeting the girl of his dreams.
"R & R: A Sex Comedy" is a futuristic tale of a universe governed by women who bear a striking resemblance to his mother and aunties. In the nation called Atalanta, however, trouble is brewing. The enslaved Dongs, as males are called, are in revolt. In fact, there's an underground leader in ascendancy -- one Resurgius. This stalwart Resurgius bears an uncanny resemblance to Serge, obviously a wish-fulfillment, for he has everything that Serge has not -- especially muscles and courage, though he is several I.Q. points down from Serge himself and wears Serge's actual horn-rimmed spectacles.
Through the process of writing his novel, and with the help of his transgender friends, and his girlfriend, Amanda, Serge, who has been taught by his dominating female family to pee sitting down, stands up for himself, at last!
Critique: Deftly crafted, original, inherently fascinating, humourously witty, and demonstrating an especially effective, narrative driven storytelling style, "R & R: A Sex Comedy" by E. M. Schorb will prove to be an unusual but enduringly interesting addition to personal reading lists, as well as community and academic library Speculative Fiction collections.
MBR: Small Press Bookwatch, May 2020 (midwestbookreview.com)
