Rating: 
Summary: A sharp, unapologetic declaration of independence
Review: Catherine Millet presents a clear-eyed, intellectually precise, unapologetic summary of a life fully lived in the pursuit of intense sexuality. She makes herself neither heroine nor slut, at least not in the pejorative sense and makes no apology nor suffers no false blush for her extraordinary adventures. I found the prurient value of the book diminished by the somewhat clinical prose, despite the explicit content; yet it is by the clinical and detached prose that the book transcends mere pornography and becomes a work to confound the puritan presupposition that sexuality is intrinsically sinful.
Rating: 
Summary: A Waste of Money
Review: If one seeks to buy a book about sex, it should either be erotic or informative, or both. This is neither. The woman's sex life is basically that of a blow up doll - she basically makes herself available to anyone who wants it and is so detached from emotion and thought that one wonders whether she enjoyed any of her experiences. As a reader, I could not. That's when I could decipher the bad writing. Sentences and paragraphs flow on without any indication of organisation and the writing is bad. OK, you might think, at least it could be erotic. It's not. Don't waste your money.
Rating:
Summary: Cauliflower Growths
Review: I was lucky in that I ran across this book in the library and therefore did not waste any money on it. While I enjoy some occ fine literary erotica-VOX was intriguing-but this piece of garbage just left me feeling sorry for the "cardboard imitation of life" that wrote it. I could not get past the first 50 pages,tho I did skim thru some of the rest. If being detached from any emotions is considered "intellectual" then I suppose you could classify this book as that.But I was amazed as I considered that this book was probably for real-and considered that most half way intelligent people nowdays realize that even condoms don't protect someone from genital warts-which present themselves as ugly cauliflower-like growths around the anus and on the genitals making cleanliness difficult-and are often precursers to cervical cancer. Not to mention all kinds of other yukky incurable and dangerous diseases this lady has exposed herself to. She even admits to contracting "clap" in the beginning of the book! There was nothing sexy or erotic about this book -it was just sad sad sad. And as she was so clinically detached describing various encounters ad nauseum,so too my brain pondered the disgusting most assuredly revolting mess she has made of her genitalia,and her ironic lack to achieve any real passion while she excels in a field reknown for it's passion.. I started this book thinking it must have been written by a free spirit,but soon realized that it was written by someone trapped in chains with absolutely no power or control over her own sexuality.I would have given it 0 stars had that been an option.
Rating: 
Summary: Ode to Sturdy Soft Tissues
Review: This is the type of book that shows up occasionally in the literature, a true oddity that stands alone, unclassifiable in terms of known genres, not quite what it appears to be, but not entirely different from it, either. I am thinking of St. Exupery's LITTLE PRINCE, or Pauline Reage's THE STORY OF O: the first not a children's story, the second not a sadomasochistic tract. Each a single, luminous object that cannot be imitated, that will never be the foundation of its own genre, each destined for eternal life, yes, but a lonely and isolated existence.Catherine Millet's SEXUAL LIFE has not plot, no time line, no sequencing; it is an ongoing sketch (cartoon like) of a female body being used for sexual purposes by various men at once, with the glad cooperation of the body's owner; it is a female body taking full advantage of a variety of more or less annonymous male bodies at once, with each male organ, once spent, being replaced mechanically by another of a different size, or shape, or color, or texture, or agility, to be fitted into a hand, or a mouth, or any of the other pockets available for penetration, and there to be coddled and rubbed and teased to extinction; and once extinct to be replaced by another and another, and another. The narrative is a mystery because is seems purposeless. This challenges the reader to create a reason, if not for the book, at least for the reading of the book to the end; and that, sooner or later, is the real challenge of this work. ....
Rating: 
Summary: An Intellectual Read into the Sexual Life of One Woman
Review: I just finished reading this book. I found the book intellectually stimulating more than erotic. I felt that the book was descriptive in discussing the sexual acts that Catherine M. encountered. To say that this book represents women in general, would be false. Although she explains in detail the physical satisfication she experienced,I'm not quite comfortable with her emotional/mental health. The book was is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Far more interesting than Sade
Review: This is a fascinating read. Sade is totally one-dimensional compared to this writer. However, if you have the wrong expectations, you will not get much out of this book. The title says it all. It is about Catherine M.'s sexual life - NOT about her childhod traumas (you won't find any), her low self-esteem (none of that either), her emotional life (remember it is her sexual life this book is about), nor her 'journey' of self-discovery (she's an art critic not psychoanalyst). It is simply and plainly about her sexual life. She tells us with admirable honesty how it was for her. She is not interested in telling us how other people's sexual lives should or should not be. Neither is she interested in arousing the sexual desires in her readers. What this book does for me is offer me a whole new way of looking at sex (especially sex for women) - and it could be a real revelation if you try to see it from her perspective (assuming you are an average reader like me). Your reaction to the book will say a lot about how you look at sex and what it means for you. It certainly made me re-think many of my prejudices and taken-for-granted assumptions about sex.
Rating:
Summary: If you love sex . . .
Review: . . . then you'll love this book. Catherine goes into amazing detail. You can tell she has given herself to this subject--physically, mentally, and spiritually. I'm a man, .... and it's equally pleasurable to get inside a woman's head (as Catherine M. allowed me to do by reading her book). Not only did I find it immesely pleasurable (...), but I also found it to be mentally and spiritually satisfying.
Rating: 
Summary: informal lifestyle
Review: have you ever wanted to get something out that had been with you for so long, but didn't feel the desire to share with a close friend, but rather a complete stranger? Catherine Millet has shared with the readers, a life of constant change, from her early years-throughout. A life this complex obviously needs the release that she so sought after. It was physical and mental(and sometimes a struggle between the two), but if you read into the meaning of what she was truly seeking, you would find a young girl, who did not understand adults and their perceptions of sex and what their lives were about and a woman who had the desire to know, at any and all costs. Her fantasies will take you into a difficult to grasp world, that sometimes can be as provoking as the sexual acts themselves, and more. What is so interesting is the detatchment that exists throughout the book. Its as though she is telling, but is also the reader. As her complex personality demonstrates, she is capable at being on multiple levels of oneself at any given time. She is impressive this way. If you start to read and find it too sexual, get over it!! Let your mind for once enjoy, and not over-analyze. No judging, just observe. It may be embellished somewhat, and I believe those parts are intentional, remember, this book isn't just for you, its for her too! This book is as much about clearing the air for her as it is to opening up our puritanical selves to at least live vicariously through another. We wouldn't want to do that though now would we? Go for it, its the safest way!! Someone's sexual acts can be misleading into the type of person they are. It appears that successful, good people who contribute to society should be praised, yet so many continue to look at what they fear or cannot understand, and judge solely based on this, as if they are better. (It would be interesting to be Catherine M and see how she is treated after the publication of this work.) Catherine M is not prejudice, and neither should the reader be upon reading this truly erotic, fascinating, and informal work.
Rating:
Summary: You Are Like a Hurricane...
Review: I "get" this book. I get aroused reading parts of it and I get the intellectual sexpot personae of Catherine M. (As an aside, I don't get why she feels her first name is the French equivalent of, say, "Debbie", as in being a common post-war name. Whoever heard of Debbie the Great or Debbie Medici, or even Catherine Does Dijon? I also don't get why there is a photo on the cover of a bare-breasted woman when Catherine is so self-taken with her rear-end). She is an expert at disappearing into the eye of her own hurricane. She fantasizes and actualizes mostly sexual circumstances and then has the ability to create her own mental black hole of nothingness to withdraw into. Neat trick!! The fact that she never got arrested, beat-up, or terminally ill just adds to the mystique. She doesn't even have to worry about being fired from her job at Art Press as a result of the book's publication! Class 4 hurricane with a fixed and dilated whale eye.
Rating:
Summary: I didn't get it
Review: This book was just plain weird. I couldn't relate to anything about the author, and I'm glad of that. I finished the book not understanding anything about the woman -- her motivations, the ramifications of her choices, etc. It was a long, rambling, jumbled mess of strange, twisted memories and fantasies. It was awful.
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