http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/863137-blind-man-confused-over-mystery-enema

Front cover for The Complete Enema Guide

By Art Hamilton?
Published in 197? by Mark Distributors

The Complete Enema Guide is one of the hardest books I have chosen to read and review here on the site.  It is complicated for a couple of reasons. First, there is scant information available about the book itself.  I am unsure if I recorded the author and publisher information on this particular addition to the library. The inside front cover lists the copyright as belonging to Art Hamilton and Mark Distributors as the printer. While I did find an online reference to Art Hamilton as a supplier of enema-related toys, I have no idea if Art Hamilton is a company, a person, or both.  Adding to the confusion, the inside back cover contains an ad with Art Hamilton above the address. In the end this is not a matter of much consequence save for the fact that it makes tracking down similar work much more difficult which is a shame since I really liked this book and would enjoy having more pieces like it in my collection.

The second reason that this has proven a difficult book to review is that while The Complete Enema Guide presents itself as how-to for enemas, as a how-to guide, The Complete Enema Guide is terrible.  While I am averse to kinky sex books that read as safety manuals written by corporate attorneys, most of the information presented in this book about enemas is unclear, haphazard, and potentially dangerous.  Despite this, The Complete Enema Guide is one of my favorite reads.

One might fairly ask how I can enjoy a book that does a terrible job of presenting its subject.  The main reasons are that despite its spectacular failure as an instructional guide, the book provides an unvarnished view of 1970s gay New York at its zenith and the author’s contagious exuberance leaps off every page.

The author’s candor in discussing his enjoyment of enemas, anal fisting, rimming, poppers, and so on is entertaining and reminds modern readers of a time before there was any such concept as safe-sex.

Written in a conversation style, the book presents personal stories to provide examples to educate the reader.  One story in the middle of the book is told from a third person perspective, but the majority of the stories are portrayed as the author’s personal experiences.  Unfortunately, the stories are disjointed and unorganized and as previously mentioned fail to provide any useful advice for starting enema play.   Inside the text there is a mention of T.A.I.L. (if anyone has information about T.A.I.L., please drop me a line) which suggest that the book was originally written as a series of magazine articles which were later cobbled together as a booklet.  If that is the case, it would explain the haphazard nature of the text.

While the text is interesting, it suffers from multiple typesetting and/or editing errors.  I did not count a single page that was without an error; however these errors tended to be missing letters or obvious words so they proved to be not major distractions.  Also frustrating is the lack of illustrations in the book to help explain the enema equipment being used or how it might be set up.

My favorite part of the book was its final section which is dedicated to the rarely discussed topic of golden enemas.  A golden enema is, simply put, urinating directly into the anal cavity, and it can be a highly erotic experience for both parties. I am not completely certain why the subject of golden enemas remains so under-discussed, but I suspect that it has something to do with the taboo nature of the act and the fact that it tends to not lend itself to being filmed.

At any rate, the author’s discussion of the finer points of a golden enema does well to explain its appeal as a sex act.  As he puts it, “No other act of friendship between two males can be as intimate as that except for cock-sucking and, perhaps, ass-fucking.”  (Am I the only one that thinks once you piss into someone’s anus the two of you are a bit more than just friends?)   As fun as a golden enema is all by itself, post-golden enema coitus is simply amazing, but be prepared for a bit of a mess.  As the author explains, “After you’ve injected…with your piss, you may just leave your cock in place and proceed to fuck him.  Some piss will dribble out around your plunging cock, and make it a really juicy lust fuck. ”

Despite suffering from a number of problems that would make a modern book unreadable, The Complete Enema Guide is an amazing book that serves to not only discuss a topic that remains taboo over thirty years after its publication, but also documents the sexual mores of a time and place that many would willfully ignore.

Intimate Invasions front cover

by M.R. Strict
Published in 2004 by Greenery Press

Klysmaphilia or enema play is one of those topics that embarrasses most people to talk about, much less express an interest in. Given that, a Greenery Press book devoted to the topic would seem a very worthwhile effort towards expanding everyone’s comfort and familiarity with the topic. Or at least, that’s what I thought prior to reading the book. It pains me to have to say this (for one thing I bristle at the bad pun), but simply put this book is shitty.

One consistently annoying thing about BDSM books in general, and Greenery Press titles in particular, is a writing style that uses fantasy scenes interspersed in between matter of fact discussion.  Having endured more of these books than anyone really ought, I have come to the conclusion that most BDSM books would not be published were they written about any other topic.  Books about even such potentially mundane topics as gardening, cooking, and sewing are generally better written than even the best BDSM book.  It is so bad that I own any number of books that I would be embarrassed to have the coroner find on my bookshelf not because they are dirty but simply because they are poorly written.

But I digress. The most astonishing part about Intimate Invasions is that even though it clocks in at about 140 pages, there are perhaps 20 that contain useful information. Without the awful fantasy sequences this book might have been a good fit for Greenery Press’ “Toybag Guide” series.  But even that might be a stretch since even those 20 pages are not reliable because M.R. Strict’s knowledge and advice seems suspect. As bad as the factual sections are, the fantasy sequences are even worse.

Just how bad is this book? It is so bad that I would put more faith in the advice from any number of 1970s enema guides marketed by the same companies that specialized enema themed pornography.  Even though they often recommend such potentially dangerous practices as giving wine enemas, they tend to demonstrate a greater passion and knowledge of their subject.

I hope that another BDSM publisher and/or author will devote a book to this worthwhile topic. They certainly will have no trouble writing something better than this.