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<DIV>I'll add my voice to Frank's in recommending Alice's novel "Trine Erotic." Here's the review I posted to Amazon in 2002 ...</DIV>
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<DIV><STRONG>Witty, wise, and wonderful: brings biology back to life !</STRONG>, March 20, 2002<BR>
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<TD vAlign=top>Reviewer:</TD>
<TD><A href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/cm/member-glance/-/A1LNUBK8OQCGAE/1/ref=cm_cr_auth/002-5601329-2188854?%5Fencoding=UTF8"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><FONT color=#003399>Todd I. Stark "Cellular Wetware plus Books"</FONT></SPAN></A> (Philadelphia, Pa USA) - <A onclick="return amz_js_PopWin('/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/13158871/pop-up/ref=cm_rn_bdg_help/002-5601329-2188854#TR','AmazonHelp','width=340,height=340,resizable=1,scrollbars=1,toolbar=1,status=1');" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/13158871/pop-up/ref=cm_rn_bdg_help/002-5601329-2188854#TR" target=AmazonHelp><FONT color=#003399><IMG height=15 alt="(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)" src="http://g-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/reputation/c7y_badge_tr_6.gif" width=101 align=absMiddle border=0></FONT></A> <A onclick="return amz_js_PopWin('/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/13158871/pop-up/ref=cm_rn_bdg_help/002-5601329-2188854#RN','AmazonHelp','width=340,height=340,resizable=1,scrollbars=1,toolbar=1,status=1');" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/13158871/pop-up/ref=cm_rn_bdg_help/002-5601329-2188854#RN" target=AmazonHelp><IMG height=15 alt="(REAL NAME)" src="http://g-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/reputation/c7y_badge_rn_1.gif" width=70 align=absMiddle border=0></A> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>This is something brand new to me and which caught me completely by <BR>surprise--a biologically informed love story. One of those wonderful books <BR>that takes useful, interesting intellectual ideas and makes them real and <BR>palpable in people's lives. The book is filled with delightfully primal <BR>themes voiced in a very modern idiom. It doesn't just tug at your emotions, <BR>it tugs at them through your brain by weaving a nest of stories that <BR>interlock and share meanings.
<P>This is not biology in the old sense of simple "animal instincts" or even <BR>just the recent sense of selfish genes and the mathematics of human <BR>relationship games. It is also biology informed by our modern understanding <BR>of how we create and transmit meaning through words. The roles of the "meme" <BR>or fuzzy unit of culture, feature prominently as conceptual undercurrents <BR>here. Then the author takes it way beyond being a unit of culture and <BR>illustrates by her own masterful example how it is also an agent of human <BR>transformation.
<P>Many people talk about how human beings are linked by their stories, but in <BR>Trine Erotic, the author demonstrates just how fundamental a mode of <BR>communication the story can be. Her characters reveal the deep strategies <BR>behind their feelings and behaviors, while trying to sort them out from their <BR>excuses for their own behaviors.
<P>Through her own storytelling, Alice Andrews seduces the reader into layer <BR>after layer of change in their own understanding, all the while explaining <BR>what she is doing. This is a relatively new and interesting form of <BR>introspective art that both inspires and teaches.
<P>Two problems ... we aren't used to art being quite so aware of its own role, <BR>especially in scientific terms, and we usually aren't comfortable with women <BR>consciously cutting through the haze of erotic games to see their own <BR>relentless Darwinian logic. It's exciting and a bit disconcerting as well to <BR>see female sexuality both revealed and unleashed in this light.
<P>Andrews's female leads have the terrifying but exciting freedom we wish we had, <BR>while still being immersed in misgivings of their own making, trying to sort <BR>out complex webs of feeling and what it all means.
<P>Not only did I find this book a delight, but I've put it on my list of books <BR>to read when people want to learn about how themes of evolutionary biology <BR>can be applied to real life.<BR></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>