Fermentation

by Angelica Jacob

Fermentation is an erotic novel about the senses, carnal pleasures, and one woman's insatiable appetite. Set in a French hill town during a searing heat wave, it is a surreal and sensual tale of desire, satisfaction, and need. In the midst of a scorching summer, the garbagemen go on strike, the air turns stagnant, and Fermentation's young narrator, Odissa, becomes pregnant by her boyfriend, a fire-eater. In the eerie calm of the drys relentless heat, she awakens to an incredible craving for cheese.From Brie to Parmigiano to Roquefort -- Odissa finds that satisfying her hunger spawns a series of incredibly erotic dreams and fantasies. And as her baby grows, so does her constant craving, until it appears that Odissa herself may be ripening.

Genres: Contemporary, Erotica, Adult

144 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1991

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intense novella (are all novellas intense by definition?) about Odissa, a pregnant woman living in a hot, stagnant French city, and her craving for cheese, which precipitates a series of erotic dreams. That description makes the story sound a bit silly, but when you're reading it, it really isn't. It creates a perfect microcosm, in which the city comes alive and the often surreal details - Odissa's fire-eater boyfriend, her aimless wandering around the city (never named, making it more intangible), the body pulled out of the river - mix with Odissa's dreams to make the whole story seem somewhat chimerical. The cover and blurb try to push the book as erotica, but it's more sensual than sexual. The pleasures of eating and drinking, the impression of Odissa's heightened senses of smell and taste, are really more prominent in the narrative than her dreams and fantasies. The sex scenes have mostly faded from my mind, but an impression of oppressive, shimmering heat and rich, indulgent food has stayed with me.

(This was one of the many debuts mentioned by Nicholas Royle in First Novel. Angelica Jacob is/was a psuedonym: the author has published a second novel, Confession, under what I assume is her real name, S.G. Klein. It's a shame that book - a love story based on real events in the lives of two of the Brontë sisters - doesn't interest me at all, because I found the style here mesmerising, ethereal.)

[Manan Desai · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only bought this book because I was intrigued by its premise of a pregnant woman with heightened appetite for sex having cravings for various kinds of cheese in the middle of an unsually sweltering summer in a nameless town in Europe and because only a used copy was available at cheap price. But boy was I not disappointed. This is not your usual story of most novels. In fact, there little plot to begin with. The book is comprised mostly of narration and vivd description. This is not an erotica in true sense of the word but there is a lot of sex and a lot of it weird sex. So, if you like novels with good plotlines and less sex, then look away. If you are fond of poetic prose with detailed vivd descrption of little things and incidents, then this is for you. I loved how the author describes quite a few scenes in detail such as breaking of a goose egg on protagnist's pregnant belly and proceeding to have sex while keeping the yolk in tact on her navel, a body being fished out of river, protagnist's observation at a crowded cheese shop, a submission and sex scene at barn among cows, protagnist giving birth to her child, protagnist watching from a distance a woman's face being shaved by a man in front of a large mirror which turns into her being fucked and then man slitting her throat and dumping her body in a bonfire and then catching the protagnist and raping her in front of the fire, Virgin Mary and an angel from a painting in a church going into bedroom and having sex etc. Of course, some these are Odissa, the protagnist's dreams and some are real. I liked the way the protagnist remains nameless until almost at the end her name is sopken only once.

Read it for Jacob's beautifully crafted prose and unusual premise. Don't bother much about sex, it's just incidental. Concentrate on build up of every scene. It would help if you read it during scorching humid heat of summer or pouring rain of monsoon. A satisfying short read.

[Nemo ☠️ (pagesandprozac) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful, strange little oddity of a book with the quality of a fever-dream. Literary but not overwrought, and very much a character-driven novella with little plot. Descriptions of rich cheeses mingle with scenes of unusual and intense erotic dreams; the perfect book for a sybarite and gourmand.

There was just something lacking like Serge falling into the sea, or just dying in general that left me a little unsatisfied at the end though, hence the four stars rather than five.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn to this by the idea of a woman being turned on by cheese. I love cheese and woman (nice cover art!), so it seemed like a good match, right? The writing is quite beautiful and descriptive, especially when it paints simple scenes in such wonderful colors and textures, enlisting all the senses for appreciation. I am not entirely sure if the cheeses in the chapter headings reflect the sex scenes later in the text, but both - the cheese and the sex - were delicious! Our narrator's relationship with Serge is intriguing and complicated, more so when she gets pregnant (not a spoiler, trust me) and he wanders off, figuratively and literally. Not an overly complex tale, but exquisitely crafted and a rather tasty read!

[DeanJean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fermentation by Angelica Jacobs is a re-read of an exotic, sexy and also very bizarre erotica novella. It was an early introduction to how prose could be earthy, wrapped around vision and be over-ripened with sensation, of how literally ‘anything goes’ in the imagination.

My meetings with this slim volume was random, yet precipitious. There was the burnt orange cover, the descriptions of a never-ending summer and decomposing refuse, lots of cheeses described so tantalisingly that I would also long for cheese like our hungry protagonist, bizarre sex scenes, and a lingering unreality that persisted long after I finished the book. The book vanished after its return to the library, as if to signal that it never existed - or that it could not exist on this physical realm. It took many frustrating searches involving permutations of the sentence: “woman who is impregnated by her fire-eating boyfriend and has to deal with cheese cravings while having sex dreams” before I hit bingo on Goodreads.

Odissa gets pregnant by Serge, her fire-eating boyfriend who makes her feel as if she has been “caught in a car’s headlights” - so different from her other lovers who sound much more domesticated and tame than the wild, burning male she has been ensnared by. The city is meanwhile scorched by the summer, the refuse heaps decomposing underneath the unbearable heat. As she grows in size, so does her appetite for various cheeses, and the increasing propensity for surreal, sex dreams that reflect her desire, jealousy, and confusion with the growing fetus inside her body.

Has the perception of this book changed much on the second read? Some scenes seem less fantastical then before. There were some scenes that seemed new on the second read. But it’s nice to finally be reacquainted with this magical book, and to also be convinced that it isn’t just a fever dream.

[Olly Xoxo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thought this would be a weird sensory book like Paradise Rot but it's just about food play:(

[Maryjane Coons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had mixed feelings about the book. Liked it yet at the same time this book is dumb. 🤷‍♀️

[elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

a lot of weird sex. weird things. very weird protagonist.

[Karschtl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eine Frau hat während ihrer Schwangerschaft unglaubliches Verlangen nach Käse und hat nach dem Verzehr erotische Träume.

Die erste Hälfte des Buches fand ich noch ganz ok. Die Handlung war noch nachvollziehbar, die Träume auch ok. Aber im zweiten Teil wurde es dann nur noch skurril und die Träume teilweise abartig. Es hätte ein guter erotischer Roman werden können, aber die Chance wurde leider vertan.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew a story about a jilted, pregnant, cheese-obsessed American stranded in Paris during a summer garbage strike could be so sexy?

[Johnny]

Dammit who did I loan this to last!? This site just reminds me about all the books I have lost.

[M.E.G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accidental erotica acquisition - turnerd out to be a short story about a cheeseholic, pregnant, French gal. Unexpected, unusual and sensual narrative - 3.5 stars.

[Fay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't often read books more than once but have returned to this one a few times

[Damon Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely... But made me want to eat lots of cheese!

[Bachyboy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woman, pregnant to a gadabout fire eater, eats a whole lot of different cheeses and has erotic dreams. Better than it sounds!

[Sonu Verma · Rating 5 out of 5]

She is slut and enjoy erotic dreams. She has been masturbating since young age and often crave for cheese. She is pregnant and narrates her past with vivid description.