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Roxana Olsen has always dreamed of going to Paris, and after high school graduation finally plans to travel there on a study abroad program--a welcome reprieve from the bruising fallout of her parents' divorce. But a logistical mix-up brings Roxana to Copenhagen instead, where she's picked up at the airport by Søren, a twenty-eight year old guide who is meant to be her steward. Instantly drawn to one another, Roxana and Søren's relationship turns romantic, and when he asks Roxana to accompany him to a small town in the north of Denmark for the rest of the summer, she doesn't hesitate to accept. There, Roxana's world narrows and opens as she experiences fantasy, ritual, and the pleasures of her body, a thrilling realm of erotic and domestic bliss. But as their relationship deepens, Søren's temperament darkens, and Roxana finds herself increasingly drawn to a mysterious local outsider whom she learns is a refugee from the Balkan War. An erotic coming-of-age like no other, from a magnetic new voice in fiction, Open Me is a daringly original and darkly compelling portrait of a young woman discovering her power, her sex, and her voice; and an incisive examination of xenophobia, migration, and what it means to belong.… (more)
User reviews
So far, so terrible, but there is a reason to read this one, and it's the sex. While it's not a good novel, it works pretty well as a portrait of female desire and a chronicle of sexual yearning and satisfaction. Locascio is, quite frankly, a better writer of sex scenes than of more respectable prose: she carefully threads the needle between bodice-ripping sensuality and cool matter-of-factness here. Roxana's desire comes across as achingly believable, and the sexual encounters described are both undeniably physical and emotionally liberating -- a difficult balance to strike. It's also nice that the author is smart enough to not make this one of those books were a more experienced man teaches some young ingenue about the joys of love-making. Roxana's almost completely sexually inexperienced when the book starts, but she's also honest enough with herself -- and with the reader -- to give us admirably complete picture of what turns her, how much she enjoys feeling her own sexuality mature, and how painfully she comes to need sexual contact. Seen in the best possible light, "Open Me" is a story of a young woman growing into her sexual self, if sometimes painfully. It's interesting to see how much our main character's sexual identity develops when she's by herself. To give credit where it's due, it's been a while since I read a novel where a character's body seemed so completely inhabited as Roxana's does here.
Of course, I think that the author might be trying to make an argument that the kind of functional, well-regulated society that Denmark is described as isn't really enough to sate our more profound needs. As another reviewer mentioned, this political angle isn't done all that well, and it's not that much fun to watch Roxana hang out in nice, clean apartments furnished with fashionably minimalist furniture, even if the sex scenes that sometimes take place are written with real inventiveness and verve. "Open Me" isn't a completely unsuccessful exercise, but the good bits -- and what else are we going to call them? -- occur too infrequently to make this one really recommendable.