Getting Off, the debut book by the 35-year-old Mexican-American essayist Erica Garza, is comparably affecting. The memoir shines light on the lonely (albeit impressively multi-orgasmic) world of a woman who binges not on food or pills, but on hookups and 'getting off' ...her prose is appealingly no-frills and accessible. She writes in the style of one who knows better than to linger too long on the eroticism of her memories — one who has learned the hard way how crucial it is to keep dangerous rushes of euphoric recall in check ... As a narrator, Garza is a master of identifying such dark, postcoital feelings as these ... We’ve all been there, and in reading Garza’s insight into her own experiences, we better understand ourselves ... But the strong final chapters, sublimely set in Southeast Asia, are both inspirational and, dare I say it, still pretty kinky. God bless a lost person who has found her way. Thanks for sharing, Erica.
Erica Garza’s Getting Off: One Woman’s Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction is like Belle de Jour if Séverine was a real woman writing in the 21st century and exploring her desires before she even had the chance to become a bored housewife ... Rather, the compelling part of Garza’s story is that recovery entails the acceptance of her libido and refusal of shame. In a world that still fears female sexuality and buys into the dichotomy of the Madonna-whore complex, Getting Off is doing crucial work ... Garza is admirably bold, laying everything bare via her chosen genre ... Though Garza writes through the lens of addiction and recovery, the conclusions she draws feel a bit too simple at times. What about women who look at hardcore porn and have strong feelings of self-worth? Garza doesn’t explore this question and it isn’t part of her journey... If we care about the sexual health of our young people, we might encourage them to read Getting Off.
Getting Off could have been a tighter memoir had Garza not strayed from the main focus, writing of her obsession with body hair and that time she was in a pageant. And it may sound strange, but the details about porn weren’t as interesting as her emotions ... Big picture? Getting Off does what successful memoirs are supposed to do–puts us in another person’s shoes and allows us to take away real solutions that could help our problems–even if our lives are not similar to hers.
