Praise for Kamikaze Lust by Lauren Sanders
(Winner of a 2000 Lambda Literary Award)

“Great courage must account for such complete disregard of political correctness, and great sensitivity for such sadness.”

—Amanda Filipacchi, author of Vapor and Nude Men

“Like an official conducting an all-out strip search, first-time novelist Lauren Sanders plucks and probes her characters’ minds and bodies to reveal their hidden lusts, and when all is said and done, nary a body cavity is spared.”

—Time Out New York

“Kamikaze Lust makes a connection between unrealized lives, sexual repression, and the fear of death. In Sanders’ hands, what is usually clichéd or gratuitous is hot.”

—Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls

“Kamikaze Lust puts a snappy spin on a traditional theme—young woman in search of herself—and stands it on its head. In a crackling, rapid-fire voice studded with deadpan one-liners and evocative descriptions, Rachel Silver takes us to such farflung places as a pompous charity benefit, the set of an ‘art porn’ movie, her best friend’s body, Las Vegas casinos, and the psyche of her own porn-star alter ego, Silver Ray, all knit together by the unspoken question: who am I, anyway? And as Rachel tells it, asking the question is more fun than knowing for sure could ever be.”

—Kate Christensen, author of In the Drink

“This sexy little novel isn’t afraid to be steamy—but it isn’t too jaded for romance either.”

—The Advocate

“Lauren Sanders is a writer of extraordinary skill.”

—Bay Area Reporter

“The fact that Sanders can so overtly take on sex and death, write almost exclusively of their relationship to each other and their effects on a developing personality, and not sound clichéd, is a monumental achievement in itself.”

—Toronto Star

“Sanders zips and zooms through Rachel’s overturned life with prose as sharp, quick, and deadly as any suicide mission.”

—Out Magazine

“In Kamikaze Lust, Lauren Sanders manages her own later-day book of changes. We follow the plight of a city reporter in hot pursuit of a controversial story, but when her newspaper union suddenly strikes, she finds herself in need of carryover cash. She becomes a ghost writer for a porn diva—and the story follows the transfiguration of her sexual and literary pursuits. From Bay Ridge to Vegas—with a memorable supporting cast—dysfunctional family members and porn stars—this high-paced novel gracefully covers ground. By the touching conclusion, Sanders has investigated the age-old questions that bookend life: sex and death.”

—Arthur Nersesian, author of The Fuck-Up

“Without wit or heart, this much sex would be unsexy, particularly if the author were using the titillation factor as mere bait for jacket blurbs. Instead, it serves a broader purpose, illustrating that the boundaries we use to demarcate civilized society are largely an illusion, and that labels like ‘porn star,’ ‘cancer patient,’ and ‘lesbian’ are meant to signify—falsely—‘people nothing like us.’ Here sex bleeds so naturally into life, and life into sex, that books that shy from this human realm begin to seem prissy and suspect.”

—City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul)

“Kamikaze Lust is a whirl of New York neurotic fast-quipping with a line or two courtesy of Miss Sandra Bernhardt, but who better to borrow from than the Princess of Pith?”

—Time Out London