Confessions of a Librarian: A Memoir of Loves
Barbara Foster, 2015
Riverdale Avenue Books
248 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781626011519
Summary
Ever wonder what a university librarian--a highly praised and widely translated author--does at night after spending the day at the reference desk answering questions?
Barbara Foster’s latest endeavor is a no-holds barred memoir that describes her erotic pilgrimage to the “wilder shores of love,” including Turkey, India, Israel and Argentina, as well as frolics with the Mob in her home town, swinging Manhattan. A nice girl from Philadelphia turned female Casanova, Barbara has recorded her encounters in Confessions of a Librarian: A Memoir of loves. Though her Confessions expose the hot and dirty, they are always literate. Unlike the sparsely written and made-up genre of “mommy porn,” Confessions descends from the classics of erotic love: Casanova’s Story of My Life, Anais Nin’s diaries, and Catherine M’s Sexual Life, with a nod to Erica Jong and Toni Bentley. And what happens to Barbara really happened. The 250 page manuscript is complete, carefully edited, and legally vetted.
Confessions is structured around a group of memorable women friends (and sometime rivals) who meet bi-weekly in New York, where Barbara recalls her erotic pilgrimage, both geographically and spiritually. Barbara fits in although she is a mature, married, career academic with expertise in biographical writing. The Club is an actual group that Barbara attended, and the women’s personalities clash and evolve. The names and descriptions of participants have been changed, and where advisable places and dates altered.
Barbara’s erotic stories invite her readers to participate vicariously in global adventures that have become too dangerous for most. Terrorism, kidnapping, sexually transmitted diseases may have curtailed the opportunity for erotic travel, but not the desire. Barbara’s writing style is both romantic and down-to-bed. Her personal conflicting duality creates a tension that makes her own character come alive. The men portrayed are a compelling lot: rich or poor, shady or respectable, romantic and surprising in the boudoir. The memoir, like its author, is both bawdy and bookish. Confessions will forever change the image of the librarian!