Vicki Hendricks's new book Cruel Poetry is new in bookstores this month.Here are a couple of exchanges from an interview in which she talks about an earlier novel, Iguana Love:
In Iguana Love Ramona has a voracious sexual appetite -- do you think that women will have a difficult time coming to terms with her sexuality?Read the entire interview.
People told me something similar about Sherri in Miami Purity, and I was surprised. These are first-person narrators, so the reader is privy to all their inner thoughts. I really don't think either woman falls outside the normal range -- near the top, perhaps. A man would be considered "virile," with a similar capacity for sex -- maybe we need a word for a woman with their degree of heat, because I don't think it's unusual.
* * * *What about Ramona Romano makes her the predatory female that she becomes in Iguana Love?
Ramona becomes predatory in response to Enzo's manipulation, which she has allowed to overcome her through her obsessive love for him. Enzo and Ramona are two of a kind, both in need of challenge, both bored by easy pickings, both like the reptile, the iguana, that cannot love and, therefore, presents a challenge. If the cold-blooded reptile or person ever returns love, the challenge is over and the positions reverse. Ramona is the iguana to her soon-to-be ex-husband, and Enzo is the iguana to her. Iguana love makes the world go 'round and 'round.
--Marshal Zeringue