The Tuesday Erotica Club

March 27, 2006
This debut novel by playwright and standup comic Kovetz promises more than it delivers in almost every sense, starting with the "erotica" of the title. The club in question comprises four bored women working in a law firm who meet over lunch to share naughty bits from their own writing—barely erotic, poorly written passages that often devolve into sub–Sex and the City
patter. The men are one-dimensional foils (the abuser, the wimp, the sexually confused, etc.); the women are defined primarily by their opposition to each other: Lux is a dim working-class secretary while Brooke is an artist and former debutante, paralegal Aimee is pregnant and abandoned while lawyer Margot is menopausal and defiantly single. They never click as a group, and perhaps they aren't supposed to; as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that this is Lux's story. Strong and sympathetic, she deserves a novel all to herself.

April 1, 2006
Aimee is pregnant at 40 and married to a man who's moving emotionally and physically farther away. Desperate for distraction, she forms a writing club at work. When the group evolves to take up erotic writing, only Aimee and three other women persist -50-year-old lawyer Margot, for whom career has been everything; Brooke, a trust-fund baby whose artistic endeavors haven't taken her where she'd hoped; and Lux, a trashy and ignorant young woman. As they get closer, their relationships become alternately contentious and supportive, and they discover new things about themselves and one another. In a lesser author's hands, this would be sappy and contrived. But debut novelist Kovetz shows empathy for both her female and male characters and allows them their problems and faults without forcing the reader to wallow in them. Women's fiction crossed with chick lit, this work will appeal across genre lines. Recommended for all libraries." -Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2006
What started out as a literary club composed of 40 law-firm employees who met at lunchtime to share their attempts at writing has devolved into four women who write erotica. Aimee created the group to take her mind off the fact that she's pregnant and her husband is increasingly absent. Lux, a young secretary working her way out of her degenerate neighborhood, uses the club as a way to learn from the other women. Brooke attends in support of her friend Aimee, works part-time at the firm, paints, and has had the same boyfriend for 20 years. At 50, Margot is successful but realizes that she has no female friends. Four very different women, who at first seem to have nothing in common, grow closer as each week passes--not that their relationships don't have problems--but therein lies the fun of reading Kovetz's sometimes raunchy but always entertaining account of four strong characters who become friends and, in the end, much more.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)