Footsucker

Rating:
Summary: "I may be a fetishist, but I'm not a sicko."
Review: "Footsucker" is the story of a man who has a foot fetish. Now right away, there's a problem. Most of us don't really want to read pages of details about feet--the veins, the bones, the arches etc. Neither do we necessarily want to read pages of details about exactly what the protagonist does with a empty shoe--but believe me, if you decide to read this book, you are going to learn more than you ever wanted to know about being a foot fetishist.

Author Geoff Nicholson really seems to specialize in obsessions--that seems clear to me now that I've finished a third novel from him. Of course, the obsession in this novel--is feet--so be prepared, if you decide to read this book, for all sorts of details--salacious and otherwise. If you are not open to this, you should probably spare yourself the experience of trying this book.

Years ago I knew a man who was a foot fetishist. Now before you start getting any big ideas, I should add here that I knew the man as a perfectly normal person--he was quiet and on the shy side. No one knew he had this 'hobby' (for want of a better word). He was arrested after grabbing some poor woman's feet. Anyway, my point is that Nicholson really did his homework on this book. When the book begins, the protagonist details how he approaches women by hanging outside of shoe shops and asking them to participate in a fake survey. The parallels between the man I knew and the character in the book are uncanny. Because of this, I really appreciated the skill that went into the book--even though there were times when I thought 'how revolting' at something I read.

The female character in the novel, Catherine, seems a bit flat, but that is no doubt deliberately so. The protagonist (who remains unnamed throughout the book) is never too interested in how Catherine feels about things--and there are times when he doesn't ask her permission for innovative new ideas--he just springs the surprise on her. She is not a person to him--she is after all--just a pair of feet. I learned a lot--I learned the difference between a partialist and a fetishist, and I picked up all sorts of trivia about the feet of the rich and famous.

"Footsucker" was at its naughty best when the plot moved along, and when the fetishist presents his thoughts and ideas. There's one scene when Mike--a friend of the "Footsucker" unloads a confession about a recent encounter he's had. The protagonist's response is to feel slightly appalled by the confession, and he says to Mike, "do I really need this much detail?" And that is an excellent point--do we, the readers, really need quite so much detail about the erotic encounters of the foot fetishist? These details may have significance for the heavy-breathers among us, but beyond that ... as Mike says, and I repeat, "do I really need this much detail?"--displacedhuman

Rating:
Summary: enjoyable reading, a page-turner
Review: A witty and sober view of the balance between sexual needs and social normalcy. The narrator is constantly conscious about the balance and conflicts between the two. A fine work with a kinky overtone. Taught me everything I ever need to know about foot fetish.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful black comedy from a contemporary Brit master
Review: As a skillful storyteller of modern obsessions, Nicholson introduces thr reader to the inner thoughts of a foot fetishist. Similar to The Food Chain and Hunters and Gatherers, his prose is simple and fluid. His descriptions are intimate and affectionate (especially on the subject of the female foot), leading the reader to suspect that the subject is one with which the author is thoroughly familiar. Overall, a pleasurable and erotic read.

Rating:
Summary: Utterly fascinating
Review: As with every good book, from the moment we begin reading Footsucker, we are drawn into a completely unique world, in this case, the world of the foot and shoe fetishist. And Geoff Nicholson's prose is so addictively readable that I simply could not put the book down until I was finished. When I was done, though, I was left with the feeling of wanting more, both in the good and the bad sense. The character of Catherine, the woman with the perfect feet with whom the protagonist falls in love, was left mysteriously vague, perhaps on purpose, but I wished there had been more depth to her. And in retrospect, the plot of the book itself seemed but a flimsy device upon which to hang the protagonist's consuming obsessions. Still, these drawbacks were more than compensated by the fascinating character of the protagonist himself, and by the author's lovingly detailed portrayal of the mind of this particular foot and shoe fetishist. And even if you don't share the protagonist's obsessions, you will find reading Footsucker a very erotic experience, though it would be doing a disservice to the novel to label it an erotic book. For, among other things, this book is a study of fetishism in its broadest sense: we are all fetishists by nature, and all of our actions are predicated upon the particular fetishes to which we are subject.

Rating:
Summary: Shrimping Scampi
Review: Definitely a book to read with one hand! For anyone remotely curious or strongly aroused by foot fetishism, this is fascinating, deeply insightful, new age adult novel about a fetishist and the worship of his mistress' feet. The character Catherine is every foot fetishist's dream date. The author writes well and tells a doubly dark and erotic tale. From what I've heard on the street, FOOTSUCKER is soon to become a major motion picture. let's hope the film is as arousing as the novel.

Rating:
Summary: a must for anyone who's into female feet
Review: Excelent. I had to read it all at once. A very good example of the foot fetishist as well as an interesting set of thoughts about the subject. I guess I could see myself in the shoes of the main character, so much that it could be a description of myself.

Rating:
Summary: fetishist finds love & death in a pair of women's shoes
Review: Fetishist finds the life instinct and the death instinct shod in a pair of brown court shoes. For fans of "Fermata".

Rating:
Summary: Psychological study
Review: From the standpoint of a psychologist studying foot fetish this is an interesting viewpoint. The story got lost in the psychology many times.

Rating:
Summary: Should have been called Shoelover
Review: I finished this book after many trips to the library on my lunch break because I was too embarrassed to check it out and have people I know see me with it. Despite a lot of lip service that the protaganist pays to being a "foot and shoe fetishist" and not being interested in the shoes without the feet, his actions make it clear that it is the shoes that are the focus of his admiration, and the feet are not much more than a means to display the shoes he finds so compelling. I mean, he has an entire collection of shoes, he steals shoes from women who leave them in public.

What plot there is in the book is flat, very poorly developed, and all too conveniently wrapped up. While there is much exploration of the main character and his interests and motiviations, there is little or no depth to any of the other characters in the book, especially Catherine, whose feet the protaganist is smitten with. However, that may be intentional by the author because it is her feet, and nothing else about her that so transfixes the protagonist (I don't think I ever caught his name). Also, there is a lot of historical garbage about feet and fetishes that is superfluous, and often simply disgusting. There is a very small twist at the end that I thought was fairly interesting, but it didn't make up for the near complete lack of any attention to plot development.

All in all, if you have a shoe fetish, you'll probably find this book very compelling just because of the fetish aspect. If you have a foot fetish, you'll probably find it interesting for the same reason, although it's probably not exactly what you might expect. For anyone else, you'll probably just think the whole thing is strange.

Rating:
Summary: Witty and Absorbing
Review: I recommend this witty, absorbing book to all foot fetishists. Written by one (I heard Mr. Nicholson on NPR where he admitted such), this piece of fiction - a quick read - shows clearly the love and inspiration brought by something as simple and mysterious as a woman's beautiful foot.