200th out of 757 books
—
3,440 voters
Nine and a Half Weeks: A Memoir of a Love Affair
The powerfully erotic memoir that inspired the legendary film with a forward by bestselling novelist Francine Prose. Nine and a Half Weeks is a true story so unusual, so passionate, and so extreme in its psychology and sexuality that it will take your breath away.
Elizabeth McNeill was an executive for a large corporation when she began an affair with a man she met casually...more
Elizabeth McNeill was an executive for a large corporation when she began an affair with a man she met casually...more
Paperback, 144 pages
Published
January 4th 2005
by Harper Perennial
(first published 1978)
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Now THIS was real D/s, real S&M. It seemed so familiar. When kink reads as banal or playful or entirely natural you know the author knows what he or she is talking about. The lack of angst makes it more real, not less. This story is a memoir of events from the 70s. In 2013 would she have felt safe enough to stay with him. She's muted after she leaves him. Her psyche is out of whack. If she'd stayed with him, could it have worked?
Amazing memior of a real BDSM affair.
A favorite passage:
Somet...more
Amazing memior of a real BDSM affair.
A favorite passage:
Somet...more
Beautiful people of NYC who shop at Bloomie's by day and engage in S&M type stuff by night. The source for that cheesy erotic movie of the 80s with Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger. Yeah, so I pulled a perfect condition hardcover of this out of the dumpster of a certain bookseller, and it's just a hair over 100 pages and well-enough written. Most of it seems to be descriptions of apartments and the material goods therein. Vaguely reminiscent of Anais Nin and Marguerite Duras...vaguely. But the...more
May 31, 2007
Snarky's
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
the beat me eat me mistreat me crowd, romantics, lonely bitter people
I love this book so much. It's so depressing and sexy and foul and totally engrossing. I rarely read books and go, "Goddamn, why can't I meet someone who will dress me in boys underpants, make me pack a cock and then bitchslap me around?" I guess I'm probably missing the point of this nuanced look at a self destructive romance.
I first read "Nine and a Half Weeks" long ago--- long before the film with Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke. I was a brand-new undergraduate, and the first part of the book was excerpted in Playboy. I sat in my rooms at university stunned and amazed. I'd already read "Story of O"; I knew that s/m existed and knew about its allure. This was...different. It was darker than "O.", far more obsessive and intense, far less distanced and measured. I knew I had to go out and get a copy of the full book.
Al...more
Al...more
Wow. Is this book different from the movie. Nine and a Half Weeks has always been one of my favorite movies, and then a friend told me it was based on a book. But if you're expecting a more descriptive look into the sexually charged relationship of Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke, you're in for a big surprise.
This book is an intense emotional look into a BDSM journey that continues to push the limits until the main character, Elizabeth, has a psychological breakdown. Rather than erotic (like the...more
This book is an intense emotional look into a BDSM journey that continues to push the limits until the main character, Elizabeth, has a psychological breakdown. Rather than erotic (like the...more
"The first time we were in bed together he held my hands pinned down above my head. I liked it...I had found an extraordinarily skillful lover."
So begins the extraordinarily compelling memoir of obsession and abuse written by a woman using the pseudonym Elizabeth McNeill. I read the book shortly after it was released in the late 1970s, while visiting in the home of people I'd never met. I picked up the book to read a page or two just to kill time and could not stop reading. I'm sure my hosts won...more
So begins the extraordinarily compelling memoir of obsession and abuse written by a woman using the pseudonym Elizabeth McNeill. I read the book shortly after it was released in the late 1970s, while visiting in the home of people I'd never met. I picked up the book to read a page or two just to kill time and could not stop reading. I'm sure my hosts won...more
The book I read prior to this one was about abuse in a teen relationship. This memoir was also of an abusive relationship, one that Elizabeth welcomes at times. I remember seeing the movie many years ago, my memories of it where of more of an erotic love relationship. This book gives a more graphic violent view of a relationship very twisted and toxic. I did read the whole book at one sitting, I love to read a book uninterrupted like that, where there is no disruption to the flow of what I am re...more
nine and a half weeks know way, it has been 3o years and i am still reading the book. well along the way i have met billons of lovers of the book one being with me now. its a bible of beautufil prose. almost poetry. it all began for me at school, a boring monday afternoon; everyone waiting for the bell to ring to go home. i was only thirteen. as we do at school, we chat about sex! the most geekyest boy started talking to me about this book! especially the food scene x i was hooked, and amazed. s...more
I'm glad I chose to read Francine Prose's "Introduction" after I finished the book. It has spoilers, and should really be an afterword.
Nine and a Half Weeks, as a movie, is one that always turns up as a sort of classic "trashy 80s erotic romance." The movie and its characters are breezy, pumped along by the vaguely pop-jazz rhythms that signal good times or transitions in such films. I watched it while in the mood for something light/less intellectual. It wasn't until I watched the movie that I...more
Nine and a Half Weeks, as a movie, is one that always turns up as a sort of classic "trashy 80s erotic romance." The movie and its characters are breezy, pumped along by the vaguely pop-jazz rhythms that signal good times or transitions in such films. I watched it while in the mood for something light/less intellectual. It wasn't until I watched the movie that I...more
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This was ok in the late 70's, not sure how it would be if I were to read it now. I do remember being shocked when my much younger sister read it and I asked her if she even knew what they were talking about. When she said she did, I knew what I was going to feel when I had children of my own. I wanted to scream "just go back to reading Little House on the Prairie!". :-)
3.5 stars
This book was written a decade before I was even born so, I didn't really have any set expectations coming into it as far as how relevant it would still be now...
Elizabeth McNeill's writing style takes a bit of getting used to; it's discursive in a lot of ways. She sort of flutters around from different thoughts and subjects in the telling of this story.I thought this actually helped to convey the state of mind the woman in this story is in, as she's telling this story. Because of that,...more
This book was written a decade before I was even born so, I didn't really have any set expectations coming into it as far as how relevant it would still be now...
Elizabeth McNeill's writing style takes a bit of getting used to; it's discursive in a lot of ways. She sort of flutters around from different thoughts and subjects in the telling of this story.I thought this actually helped to convey the state of mind the woman in this story is in, as she's telling this story. Because of that,...more
This got my (creative) juices flowing. I like the matter-of-fact voice of the narrator, the American-Psycho-esque details of the man's wardrobe and details of his apartment (yet we never get a good sense of what he's like, not even so much as a first name), and the fast build up of the affair. Just look at the first sentence of the book--"The first time we were in bed together he held my hands pinned down above my head."-- and from there the relationship gets even crazier.
I read this in one sitt...more
I read this in one sitt...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I read this many years ago - and decided it was time to see if the passing of time had changed my opinion of it.
Mention the film and I groan in despair. The book, however, is another matter. Well written and much darker than the glossy(cheesy)film it was adapted into, we follow an intelligent woman seduced into an obsessive, self-destructive relationship that leaves her a changed woman. Life - and sex - will never be the same again. It is both erotic and disturbing.
I loved the way the story is...more
Mention the film and I groan in despair. The book, however, is another matter. Well written and much darker than the glossy(cheesy)film it was adapted into, we follow an intelligent woman seduced into an obsessive, self-destructive relationship that leaves her a changed woman. Life - and sex - will never be the same again. It is both erotic and disturbing.
I loved the way the story is...more
I saw the movie long before I read the book, so all I could think of was Mickey and Kim. I tried to get those people, those images out of my head as I read, and thanks to the gifted, simple writing, I was able to do that. I soon saw a different 'John' and pretty much the same 'Elizabeth'. The author does a nice job of showing how the heroine (her) gets sucked in to this life with this man she meets on the street, basically. For 9 1/2 weeks she immerses herself in this erotic love affair, almost...more
I read this book as a challenge from a friend who said if you read this book, I'll read Fifty Shades of Grey. The books are very similar in some aspects. I would not consider this a favorite or any kind. Yes it was a good read in this it is part of this genre history in breaking through and making books like this more popular. I am not a big fan of books where there are no names. It does not given enough personality to the book and seemed kind of flat to me, I understand it is a memoir and names...more
“The first time we were in bed together he held my hands pinned down above my head. I liked it.” And so begins this ‘memoir of a love affair’, apparently based on a true story, detailing the S&M relationship that develops (over the course of nine and a half weeks) between the unnamed narrator and her unnamed partner. Although it doesn’t flinch away from anything, it’s told in a brisk, literary style that occasionally means it’s unclear as to what is happening, which sets the reader apart fro...more
Very quick read. I'd seen the movie with Mickey Rourke and Kim Bassinger and was curious about the book which inspired it. This was certainly more dire than the film, and even more depressing. Somewhat like The Story of O in a more down to earth and totally contemporary setting. It does feel a bit like this is just the bare bones, that so much more could have been delved into in this relationship, the feelings and emotions which are so lightly sketched with such a distancing. But this somehow ri...more
May 19, 2013
Leslie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Looking for a different kind of erotic tale.
Shelves:
hot-stuff-erotica,
love-story-romance
I have never seen the movie, much less know there was a book out about it. I found out about it through one of the authors I follow and decided to take a look at it. This is not the typical BDSM erotica story. This is different from any other stories I've read.
First off, you never know the name of the man involved in the relationship. There aren't any specific personal information relating to the couple. Any information is superficial and banal. You are left to focus on the actions that went on...more
First off, you never know the name of the man involved in the relationship. There aren't any specific personal information relating to the couple. Any information is superficial and banal. You are left to focus on the actions that went on...more
Some books are just off the scale, not necessarily better or worse than all the other books you've read before - but so fundamentally different that it doesn't quite compare to anything else. For me this was such a book.
The main way this book is different is its sheer elegance. The story that takes place over two months time is caught in moments; Polaroids casually tossed, one after another into a building pile on a scuffed table. It’s a decadent, voyeuristic experience to have the sexual relati...more
I have to give this book 5 stars because I enjoyed it and, while I was reading it, I became very interested in the life of the author.
But, to be honest, I spent more time trying to find out something about the author than I did actually reading the book. It's a very short book. I like the flow of the sentences. They are colloquial and simple but very smooth, which is the sign, I think, of a very experienced writer.
I didn't find out very much about Elizabeth McNeill for all the time I spent resea...more
But, to be honest, I spent more time trying to find out something about the author than I did actually reading the book. It's a very short book. I like the flow of the sentences. They are colloquial and simple but very smooth, which is the sign, I think, of a very experienced writer.
I didn't find out very much about Elizabeth McNeill for all the time I spent resea...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Dec 05, 2010
BurningYourBooks
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
bios-and-memoirs,
whips-and-chains-oh-my
This book starts off rather simply. "The first time we were in bed together he held my hands pinned down above my head. I liked it." McNeill goes out with a friend one day and remembers a scarf she saw in a booth down the street that she regrets not buying. As she makes her way back to purchase it she meets a man and just like that they settle into a love affair. This whole book possess an indisputably tense erotic undercurrent that, depending on your sexual preferences, may or may not do it for...more
I remember reading this book in junior high and getting caught by one of my teachers. I had showed it to 2 of my friends and she caught us talking about it. she took the book. she them assigned the 3 of us a book to read and write a report on it. It makes me chuckle still to this day. the book i was assigned was "to light a penny candle". i really enjoyed the book and told her so in my report. i explained to her my love of reading and i knew she was trying to make a point but i love to read! :)
Part chicklit, part MFA-grad writing... like Sex and the City but darker. I kept imagining the guy as looking like Sting, which was gross. I was immediatly drawn out of the book when on page FOUR the narrator begins to describe every boring thing the guy owns, and continues to do so for five or six more pages. Wasn't a fan of the ending either. I think Bad Behavior focussed on much of the same themes, only better, and shorter. I'm sure this book has a (presumedly female) audience, but it's not m...more
I was trimming down my book collection and letting my neighbor go through the ones I didn't want before I donated them. I kept this one out because I didn't want my neighbor to think I was weird. I ended up reading it because it was so short. That's my excuse, anyway. Judging by the age and wear of the book, it's one I picked up at one of my Goodwill sprees. Probably scandalous by 1970s standards, but I've read more titillating YA novels.
Not as naughty as I expected. While reading, didn't think too much of it (probably, I was waiting for the naughty parts), but once finished and since, I can see how it is a well-pitched book. Breezes by, description of a cluttered room given the same weight and intensity as of being beaten by a hair brush. More, even. Now I see how it is a neat (perfect? I doubt I'll ever know) little capsule of a particular psychology.
It's an incredibly short book, I should've been able to breeze through it. Instead I found myself struggling to pay attention and forcing myself through it. It wasn't a terrible book, but I may have done myself a disservice reading a book that I had already seen the movie for. The writing was scattered (on purpose to throw the reader into the mindset of the main character), but although well-written, it didn't hold my interest. I wouldn't recommend it.
Surprisingly good and terribly disturbing. Much better than the movie. The backstory of the author is an amazing read, too. It was in the New Yorker last year. Turns out she was a feminist editor for Ms. Magazine and a daughter of a Nazi SS officer. Oh, and that it is a true story (with some portions edited out) makes it all the more disturbing.
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“This one, I guess," he says. I look over at the counter, he is looking back at me. He is holding a riding crop: "I'd like to try it out." There is a peculiar shift: from one second to the next I have become disoriented, I am on alien territory, in a foreign century. He walks a few steps to where I am half sitting on the desk, one foot on the floor, the other dangling. He pulls my skirt up my left leg, which is resting on the desk, steps back and strikes me across the inner thigh.
The searing pain is an inextricable part of a wave of excitement; every cell in my body is awash with lust.
It is silent in the small, dusty room. The clerks behind the counter have frozen.
He slowly smooths down my skirt and turns to the older man, who is wearing a suit and still looks like an accountant, though a deep flush is spreading upward from his shirt collar.
"This one will do.”
—
3 people liked it
The searing pain is an inextricable part of a wave of excitement; every cell in my body is awash with lust.
It is silent in the small, dusty room. The clerks behind the counter have frozen.
He slowly smooths down my skirt and turns to the older man, who is wearing a suit and still looks like an accountant, though a deep flush is spreading upward from his shirt collar.
"This one will do.”
“There was no mistaking the power this mad had over me. Like a well-made windup toy, whenever he set me in motion I came.”
—
3 people liked it
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