“Ekkel/Maltese” by William Maltese and Johan Ekkel— Stories and Inspiration
Maltese, William and Johan Ekkel. “Maltese/ Ekkel”, MLR Press, 2012.
Stories and Inspiration
Amos Lassen
Walter Maltese never ceases to surprise. He has long been one of the masters of the man on man erotic story and he never seems to run out of ideas. His newest idea was to take the drawings of Johann Ekkel and write short stories that correspond to them. Maltese began writing in the 1960’s and has published almost 200 books (and add to that what he has not published). He has also begun writing about wine and food and I have no idea how he does it. He originally asked Ekkel to do two portraits for him and became a true fan of his work. When Maltese saw the artist’s black and white erotic sketches, he became inspired and decided to write stories with ideas that came to him from looking at them. Thus Maltese/Ekkel was born.
Using the themes of passion, sex, vengeance, redemption and salvation, murder, love and retribution, we get some twenty-eight stories that deal with surfers, military, bull-fighting, werecats, the circus and aliens. Maltese writes very hot stories but it is not just the sex that makes them a good read—it is his writing style and I love when you can combine a good idea for a story together with a man who really knows how to write; you get a really good taste of what writing is all about.
I remember when I first started reviewing again about six years ago. I debated whether I would review erotica or not and somehow a book of Maltese’s popped up. I loved that he was able to make sex sound literary so he made the decision for me that if I was going to review erotica, it would have to have some literary value. To give you an idea what I am talking about here is a sample from the book. This is a three line story, “The Boot” and it is as much poetic as it allows the imagination to decide what is going on here.
“I was a stable boy at the Battleman Stud Farm.
I slept with Mr. Battleman’s son.
Mr. Battleman gave me the boot.”
- Posted in: erotica ♦ GLBT fiction ♦ GLBT short stories
Amos. While I remain ambivalent as regards what most reviewers write about me or about my books, you are one of only a very (whose total I can actually count on one hand and still have fingers left over) whose opinion I regard as meaningful. Because of your longevity in reviewing , and the large numbers of resulting thoughtful reviews already under your belt as regards the enormous number of books you’ve read, I’ve come to recognize you as someone who actually has read enough, and written enough, to know about what you speak. When you, as such a respected reviewer, like a book of mine, it’s a decided bonus that always fills me with delight. Thanks, once again, for your time and effort.
Wholeheartedly agree!