Let's pretend there's been an incident--and there were five people who saw it. Our five different witnesses of a single crime come out with five completely different descriptions of what happened. The stories depend tremendously on who is telling them. What does each teller see, hear, perceive? How does he filter his understanding of events? Writers use this fact of life in different ways to help them present the nuances of truth in fiction. So in a romance with a hero and a heroine, how does this technique measure up?

J.W. McKenna and Claire Thompson designed Bird In A Cage in a first person, his chapter/her chapter format. It's an intriguing approach, almost as if we've gotten into their diaries. The characters Michael and Lara have distinct voices and personalities. Especially interesting is that Lara once was a feminist and activist, and as such has suppressed her submissive nature. This is a trait that reflects the histories of several submissives I know--it is an oxymoron that one requires the social freedom to be enslaved, as well as ironic that the strong activist in public life needs to be the opposite of a leader in her private life.

Michael is a new Dom, testing himself and Lara at the same time, and learning as he goes. He has a touching vulnerability as well as an acute desire to live up to Lara's expectations. At the same time that Lara is supposed to surrender to him completely, he intends to teach her that only his feelings matter; but ultimately, we find Lara at the core of Michael’s feelings.

At the beginning, Laura--the bird--has already separated from her husband Charlie, and is living with Michael. One might wonder whose cage she is in--Charlie's or Michael's. Charlie has no understanding of BDSM; their divorce is the end of a long "vanilla" relationship. Yet the character whose chapter mentions the phrase "bird in a cage" is Michael. This is an excellent title, by the way, especially because of the irony. There's not really a question of Lara ever being out of a cage. The question is really whether she will be caged in her long-term unfulfilling relationship with Charlie, or "free" in the new "caged" relationship with Michael. Ironic, huh?

Bird in a Cage is an intimate exploration of a particular new BDSM relationship in which neither McKenna nor Thompson skimp on characterization. Their plotting is direct without being linear though I'd have changed where some of the chapters overlap. And while the torrid sexuality is channeled throughout, be aware that what sizzles for one reader may not sizzle for another. Still, Bird in a Cage is a well-realized book which shortchanges neither the end of relationships, nor the beginnings.

Maitresse
Copyright 2006