Craving Flight by Tamsen Parker

Carolyn:  This is an older novella; I acquired it in 2015. Although I'm most definitely NOT into hardcore erotica, I'm not sure this would qualify as such, but maybe it would. What do I know?

Here, have a blurb:

Tzipporah Berger is thirty-seven and single, which is practically unheard of in the Orthodox Jewish community she now calls home. Her increasing religiosity and need for kink may have broken up her first marriage, but she’s decided it’s time to try again. And the rabbi’s wife has just the man in mind.

Elan Klein is the neighborhood butcher whose intimidating size and gruff manner hint at a deliciously forceful personality. But BDSM isn’t exactly something you discuss during an Orthodox courtship. Will a marriage to Elan solidify her place in the community that she loves and provide the domination and pain Tzipporah craves or will she forever have to rely on flights of fancy to satisfy her needs?

Lori:  Carolyn mentioned this book and suggested I should try it. Not for the BDSM but because of the religion. I love religion and a book that delves into Judaism that's also kink sounds interesting.

It was fucking brilliant.

Tzipporah is a religious studies teacher. She is Jewish raised in a secular household. She likes rough sex and was married to a man who didn't. Didn't like rough sex, didn't care about religion and was the wrong man in every way.

Tz (I'm shortening it for heaven's sake, and my sake for writing this) ends her marriage and moves into Orthodox Judaism. In the sense that she physically moves into an Orthodox neighborhood, adopts the laws and rituals and becomes a practicing Orthodox Jew.

Elan is the butcher, a widower, a man Tz is attracted to for his size and brusque manner. When the Rabbi's wife suggests a match and Elan is among the choices, Tz says yes. They have a few meals together, agree that they want children, will both continue to work and they get married (it really is that cut and dried).

Elan, on their wedding night, says what do you like? And Tz takes a chance and tells him. And discovers that her new husband understands BDSM quite well and gives her exactly what she needs.

What she needs... is the theme of this book and how BDSM and Orthodox Judaism merge together. It's about accepting restrictions and forms of bondage to find freedom. To take flight. What this book does is gives us a heroine who can only be free by choosing her shackles and losing herself in the bonds.

The sex is so necessary to this story but it isn't purple cock heads and glistening drops of pre-cum. It's pain and discomfort. It's being bound into immobility and learning to let go while bound. It's about modesty on the outside and complete freedom on the inside.

My reaction to this book was ... well... right now I have tears skimming my eyes when writing this. It was one of the best books I've read this year and possibly among the best I've read ever. It's glorious.


Carolyn: Lori's just about said it all, really, and much better than I could. I just know that this is an amazing book and deserves a wide audience.

I still have difficulty relating pain to pleasure. Perhaps it's like scratching an itch until you bleed? It certainly couldn't be equated to a gallbladder attack because there's NOTHING pleasurable about that and nothing to be learned either, except pain hurts along with a longing for immediate surgery.

And still, the silly side of me wonders ...  They want children and what happens if little Tz or Elan Jr wander into the bedroom to find mama strung up by her hair (to all appearances) and bound with pretty blue rope? I'm being facetious, of course, but still ... I do wonder.

I could see that Tz wanted to live an Orthodox life and tried her best to do so but it was never linked with her religion; kosher is part of being Orthodox but how and why does it relate to beliefs? The BDSM fit in, yes, but it seemed kosher closed her in, rather than letting her fly as the sex did. Was kosher a religious experience to her? Seemed like more of a hassle. How did covering her hair fit in her religion?

The book needed to be longer, damn it!

Lori: In Orthodoxy, Carolyn, people keep their head covered in respect to God. Men wear a yarmulke and women cover their heads with scarves or oftentimes, a wig. So that explains why nobody knew her hair color. And why it mattered to Tz.

And of course keeping kosher is how one is an observant Jew. It's following the rules and laws. And I truly believe that the entire point of who Tz was, is that in being bound by laws, rules, observance and rope was all that could set her free.

This is just such an excellent book. I could never find pleasure in pain although as Carolyn pointed out, sometimes in scratching a certain itch or probing a painful spot feels deliciously bad. We've all felt it. So I guess there's a small awareness of how it can feel good while feeling bad.

Although I'm not interested in pain as pleasure or even the sexual aspect of the story really, it was all about finding freedom. Taking flight. 

I can't say enough about this book. Read it. Feel it. It's amazing.