Back to the Classics: Carrie's Story by Molly Weatherfield Revisited

Back to the Classics features one book (or series) that you consider classic. It doesn't have to be a Greek classic or a Victorian novel... contemporary classics are always welcome!

This is a free meme, meaning there's no scheduled post dates, no requirements, no prompts—it's completely up to YOU what you decide to post. You're welcome to write a review, ramble in anticipation, make historical rundowns, or provide any other interesting content pertaining to the book you choose. This is supposed to be a fun way to fawn over your favorite books while sharing with your readers your preferences as well! If you're participating, be sure to link up!

Before there was Anastasia, there was Carrie...

Molly Weatherfield's infamous, haunting, and time-revered S/m novel has recently received a makeover! This new Cleis Press reissue has a fabulous foreword by Tristan Taormino, as well as a gorgeous public transportation-friendly cover:

Carrie's Story
Molly Weatherfield

Release Date: 12 February 2013 (reissue)

Publisher: Cleis Press

Page Count: 198

Source: Complimentary copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review (thank you!)

Brilliant, bold, and exquisitely kinky, Carrie's Story is an American Story of O that goes to the head of the class. Told in the whip-smart voice of a wickedly perceptive English major, this fully imagined and elegantly expressed erotic tale may well be the finest BDSM novel ever written. As Carrie's passions for irony, self-scrutiny, and obedience to her master Jonathan take her from San Francisco to the rough rural byways of Central Valley and posh enclaves of an overcivilized Europe, her story will sweep you into a world of secret, high-concept sensuality. In Carrie's Story, Molly Weatherfield (the alter ego of award-winning romance writer, Pam Rosenthal) has created created an indelible "thinking readers' submissive."

Desire runs rampant in this story of uncompromising mastery and irrevocable submission.

You think Fifty Shades kickstarted the contemporary scene's BDSM obsession? Think again; Carrie's Story came first.

It's been nearly two years since I first read and reviewed Weatherfield's 1995 classic, so it was rather sinfully nostalgic coming back. Carrie's Story is the first BDSM novel I ever read—my initiator, you could say—and it was probably the best-written, most tragic breaking-into I could have possibly asked for. Since then, I guess my taste in erotica has been de-virginized (...deflowered? ...done in the ass?). I remember when just looking at the old cover made me queasy, and the concept of whipping and caning itself made me sick to the stomach. Since then, I've made progress, so rereading this neo-Victorian love story was interesting, to say the least.

When it comes to erotica, especially when it's as hardcore as this, the mainstream is too scared—too polite—to really give it a chance. The seediness, the raunch, the explosive, completely intentional sex—it certainly can be a little daunting. But I think Carrie's Story is exactly the type of book that could quell those fears, bridging the vanilla to the... rocky road, shall we call it?

Aside from containing some of stormiest sex scenes I've read in literature (there's no steamy or sizzling here; it's all temper, passion, and of course, pain—both physical and emotional), books like Carrie's Story are so valuable because of the emotional resonance they convey. The helplessness of a love so strong, it will slowly disintegrate if left alone, is perfectly woven through shameless romps of wicked sex. Weatherfield's compelling, absorbing prose wraps readers up into a chilling, powerful narrative that reads like the wisps of a sensual dream, and the plot, in the end, leaves readers aching. At once an emotional ride and an undisciplined frolic in the dark and complex world of BDSM, Carrie's Story combines all the naughty bits—all the chocolate, marshmallow, and of course, nuts—into a relatable, tender love story.

And just to assuage you vanilla folk, I'll end with this: Carrie's Story is like designer-brand erotica; you won't find anything better-written or more intelligent in the genre. It's lyrical, and even its most explicit of passages are tasteful... well, as tasteful as human ponies and sex slaves get. But let's give credit where it's due: there's only so much dignity that one can carry while bound and gagged 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥: Carrie's Story by Molly Weatherfield

Carrie's Story
Molly Weatherfield

Release Date: July 26th, 2002

Publisher: Cleis

Page Count: 220

Source: Complimentary copy provided by Naked Reader Book Club in exchange for an honest and unbiased review (thank you!)

"I had been Jonathan's slave for about a year when he told me he wanted to sell me at an auction. I wasn't in any condition to respond when he told me this..."

So begins Carrie's tale of uncompromising sexual adventure. Imagine Story of O starring a Berkeley PhD in comparative lit (who moonlights as a bike messenger) with a penchant for irony, self-analysis, and anal sex. Set in San Francisco and the Napa valley, Carrie's Story takes the reader on a sexually explicit journey into a netherworld of slave auctions, training regimes, and human "ponies" preening for dressage competitions.

The first thing I want to tell you is that your impressions of this book are nothing what it actually is like. The cover is haunting, and the blurb rather raunchy, but even as a novel encompassing the infamous human slave auction, or even further, human pony camps, Carrie's Story is more than a work of erotica, more than literary pornography; it is truly a work of art.

I'd never read an BDSM novel before, and quite frankly, I'd never wanted to. But being a Naked Reader Book Club member, I decided I would have to face my discomforts, and give Carrie's Story, one of the monthly selections, a chance. Sometimes, you discover the best things in life by taking the highest of risks. And in this case, that's exactly what happened.

I'm not saying I love S/m now. No. The thought of it still makes me a little queasy. But this book has brought me into a whole new world of literature, one that I find myself craving. BDSM—bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism—is a taboo subject of nature itself. Flogs, chains, gags, and leather aren't even the extremest of it in this neo-Victorian novel. Think ponies. Human ponies. Think bridles and reigns on human bodies, think whips and saddles on human flesh. Think tails, attachable only through a plug through the anus, and think of modern slavery. All very frightening concepts that I have been introduced to, and am no longer disgusted with. Don't get me wrong. Carrie's Story doesn't downplay anything, oh no. You get the rawest of humiliation, the ugliest of flaws, and the most painful of experiences. You also get unblemished emotions, ranging from homeliness, to loss, to desire, and a love story that is so untraditional in doctrine, that it makes you want to be a part of it.

Jonathan is every literature geek's dream. Handsome, obscure, slightly older. And Carrie is just the right girl to fall for him. Little does she know what she's in for... well, aside from the fact that he asks her to be his slave within hours of acquainting. "Meet me at 3 pm," he says, handing her a folded note with an address. Obviously, Carrie won't take up on his offer; he is a stranger, after all. Miraculously, she does, though. And so begins their long, but surreptitiously short-lived relationship.

The horrors of being beaten as a sexual fetish have always dawned on me. I've never found it arousing, or even amusing in the least. Carrie's Story hasn't changed that in me, but I still admit many of the sex scenes are mind-blowing. The fact that one could love the person who beats and whips them until bruises brandish, and permanent welts form, is beyond my perception. Molly Weatherfield however, does an extraordinary job convincing me.

A question arises while reading this novel: How is the fine line between two lovers and a slave and a master determined? I always thought it would be difference in inclination of emotions, but after reading Carrie's Story, I've learned that the way you as a woman, feel about your lover, is not too distant from the way you as a slave, feel about your master. And that is the message Carrie tries to bear.

Stephanie Loves: Jonathan's parting letter to Carrie that made me cry:
"Dear Carrie,
You will continue brave and beautiful, I know. In a year, you'll be much more so than you are now. I sold you at this auction because I wanted to see if I—and you—could pull it off. But I also did it because if I hadn't done it, I would have wanted to call the whole game off and see if we could become friends. Or lovers. Or something. Go to the movies and see if we liked the same ones. I still want to and this is both surprising and disturbing ...
Salut, J."

Radical Rating: 9 hearts: Loved it! This book has a spot on my favorites shelf. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Update—March 2013

Nearly two years in this original review's wake, I've revisited the newly reissued 2012 edition of Carrie's Story, which can be found here. Enjoy!