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Concertina: The Life and Loves of a Dominatrix
 
 
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Concertina: The Life and Loves of a Dominatrix (Hardcover)

by Susan Winemaker (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd (5 Feb 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0743295579
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743295574
  • Product Dimensions: 20 x 13.2 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 138,114 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Giada De Laurentiis + Marquis de Sade - true excitement = this predictable normal-girl-gets-sucked-into-the-sex-industry memoir.After graduating from culinary school, Winemaker found that all it got her was a torturous six-month gig in an unexceptional restaurant kitchen, where she spent the majority of her time being berated by a tyrannical chef. Disillusioned, she did what any girl in her position would do: got work as a dominatrix. Her new workplace - or dungeon, as it's referred to in the industry - was called The Cottage, and she quickly became one of its most sought-after practitioners. Eventually, Susan broke the dominatrix's "cardinal rule" and hooked up with a gorgeous client named Adam - at that moment, the narrative loses what little momentum it had and turns into a skewed love story, neither particularly passionate nor compelling. Winemaker covers much the same territory as Belle de Jour: Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl (2006) by fellow London-dweller Anonymous, with equally mixed results. Those looking for erotic sparks will be disappointed. The titillation factor is exceedingly low, and the sex acts become repetitive: This guy likes being sat on to the point of suffocation, that guy likes nipple clamps, this one is afraid of getting marked up for fear that his wife will discover his S&M addiction, etc. For a more compelling take on surviving the sex-worker industry with your heart more or less intact, see Jennifer Belle's novel Going Down (1998); for insight into the food/sex pairing, check out Bunny Crumpacker's The Sex Life of Food: When Body and Soul Meet to Eat (2007).Not sexy enough for sensualists, not romantic enough for those looking for love and not tasty enough for foodies. (Kirkus Reviews)


Product Description

A memoir in three parts, Concertina spans five years of the author's life as she makes the extraordinary transition from culinary expert to professional dominatrix. Taking the reader into the secret, hidden world of suburban sado-masochism, Winemaker introduces us to a fascinating array of characters, before she breaks the code of domination: falling in love with a client. The chemistry between the author and her lover - a high-powered City executive addicted to extreme physical sensation - becomes the catalyst for a deeper and more intimate exploration of their desires. As they take the games out of the dungeon and into their everyday lives, the consequences of their union make addictive reading, and we learn something about relationships taken to a level most of us never dare experience.
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Of love and pain, 18 Aug 2007
Concertina is not a celebration of BDSM. It is instead, unexpectedly, a love story -- a beautiful, erotic, haunting, aching account of passion and of desolation, which reaches a seemingly inevitable (and welcome) conclusion.

As advertised, the book is also an insider's account of the world of domination. Winemaker describes in detail sessions in which men paid her to subject them to suffucation, bondage, torture, feminization, and many other abuses. She enables the reader to emphathize both with her and with the men who feel compelled to seek out such treatment.

But Winemaker is not a true believer. She entered the world of domination as an open-minded apprentice, and grew into a conscientious and skilled professional. For a time her professional life merged with her private life. Still, she never seemed to hunger for, or need, or particularly relish the power exchange which is the heart of domination.

It is when Adam walks into Winemaker's life that the book truly begins: "On the questionnaire under physical description it said: tall, slender, fit, handsome, mid-thirties, dark hair, green eyes. But let's be accurate here: his eyes are sometimes glacial blue, sometimes aquamarine, and sometimes like the white foam off a breaking wave. They were the most aquatic, tempestuous, supernatural eyes I'd ever seen. I was instantly shaken, instantly in trouble."

The full explication of that trouble is an adventure which is both arresting and entrancing. Susan Winemaker has given us all a gift in providing a window upon her heart.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars a succulent read, 10 May 2007
Concertina is a lovely book ; cool, clear eyed, serene, delicious. It deals with food, fetishes, London, love, how to relish all your senses and how to make the total gift of your self to another person.

We follow the professional, romantic, cultural, culinary and sexual adventures of an intelligent and searching woman without ever being told what to think. The writing is sometimes so beautiful you want to read the words aloud and savour them like fruit ; whether she's describing the Scottish Highlands or the dungeons of suburbia, pomegranate seeds with feta cheese or the pain of waiting for your perfect lover to say something resonant.

I know from experience that people with sexual fetishes are neither strange nor perverted, they are as varied in character and type as anyone else and can be warm, witty and tender people who just happen to have a particular sexuality. It's refreshing to see this acknowledged in a book that doesn't judge, but conveys the simplicity and compassion needed for true sexual fulfilment in whatever form it takes.

The relationship between Susan and Adam particularly fascinated me ; it contains such intense psychological exploration and generosity of spirit, and the lovers have such an awe-inspiring ability to submit to each other, I envied them.

The author comes across as vulnerable, powerful, alive, blessed with a subtler palate than most of us and an intransigent need for the extremes of truth. Domination is about kindness too, a gift given and received like home-made food [`a psychosexual feast' as she says], and this book makes that clear.

Like a good film, this book mostly shows rather than tells, with powerful images and sensations but no need for added syrup.
I would recommend it to anyone.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A bit dark and gloomy!, 21 Mar 2007
As a professional dominatrix myself I live in hope of somebody writing a full and fair account of the occupation when the sensationalist word 'Dominatrix' is used in the title. No luck so far!

Where was the fun and the laughs.. the joy..the epiphanies...the deep personal connection and the passion it evokes? Where was the intelligence, closeness and trust! The cameraderie! Was it all intentionally avoided for some purpose pertaining to the plot or was it all aspects of the profession that the author couldn't appreciate for some reason... hard to say.

This element of the book (without which the book would make for a pretty torturous read) was laced with such an irritating bias towards the bleak and the superficial that I found it increasingly more difficult to read as I went on. It became positively depressing!

If one must use the inclusion of such material to boost the sale prospects of a narrative then the least that could be done would be to give the subject a more balanced.... less subjective airing. I found the book disturbingly cheerless.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

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5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book about ugly things
Staged in three parts which are in distinct keys, like a symphony, this is a beautifully written book about ugly themes. Read more
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