From Kirkus Reviews
The singular pleasures of Mathews's (Cigarettes, 1987, etc.) title are in fact only one pleasure, and that one is the--well, the pleasure of masturbation. Here are sixty-odd (publisher's count) tiny pieces, one or two almost a page long, most only a paragraph or just a few lines, describing various people--well, doing it. Those various people are very various, from kids to old fogies, of all sexes, nations, places, needs, and callings, some alone, some with like-minded company. Some of the vignettes are silly, some exotic, some satiric, some erotic, most poetic, some neutral, and some--a few--touchingly lovely. The point seems to be--well, let that be determined by those who choose to ponder it. The illustrations by Francesco Clemente aren't lubricous at all, but (usually) slight, charming, and as ephemeral as a--well, as, say, a falling leaf. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Joseph McElroy
Like seeds of closeness, like some always penultimate leisure to make it up out of an alphabet of selves, these glimpses yield a gentle, conspiring privacy.

John Ash, Artforum, Summer 1993
There is nothing pornographic, in the strict sense, about Mathews' text, since it does not seek to arouse the reader: its tone is cool, humorous, and affectionate. His intention is to leave us deeply impressed by the ingenuity, tenacity, and inventiveness with which humans in all places and at all ages have pursued their own pleasure. He succeeds completely.

John Strausbaugh, New York Press, 4/28/93
Quietly, with gentle and all-embracing humanism, these prose poems refute the taboos. . . . As a literary device the focus on that singular moment inspires Mathews to bravura feats of compression. . . . So that brief as these glimpses are, they're more than character 'sketches.' You see something more like a whole person in the snap of Mathews' shutter.

Alexander Laurence, Cups , 9/93
Singular Pleasures is wonderfully shocking and a joy to read, and gives a new meaning to reading for pleasure.

Michael Perkins
Harry Mathews is a playful, precise writer, a modernist with a singular sense of humor, a stylist whose subject matter often seems irrelevant next to the beauty of his language.

Artforum Summer 93
"There is nothing pornographic, in the strict sense, about Mathews' text, since it does not seek to arouse the reader: its tone is cool, humorous, and affectionate. His intention is to leave us deeply impressed by the ingenuity, tenacity, and inventiveness with which humans in all places and at all ages have pursued their own pleasure. He succeeds completely."

New York Press April 28-May 4 93
"Quietly, with gentle and all-embracing humanism, these prose poems refute the taboos. . . . [A]s a literary device the focus on that singular moment inspires Mathews to bravura feats of compression. It's a moment when a person is at their most, let's say, naked and exposed, most transported and yet transfixed, in touch with their organic urges but at the same time off in their defining desires, traumas, hopes and dreams."

Michael Perkins 4-16-93
"Harry Mathews is a playful, precise writer, a modernist with a singular sense of humor, a stylist whose subject matter often seems irrelevant next to the beauty of his language."

Cups 9-93
"Singular Pleasures is wonderfully shocking and a joy to read, and gives a new meaning to 'reading for pleasure.'"

Kirkus Reviews 3-1-93
"Some of the vignettes are silly, some exotic, some satiric, some erotic, most poetic, some neutral, and some . . . touchingly lovely."

Book Description
The first paperback edition of Singular Pleasures, sixty-one vignettes on the sole subject of masturbation, records the imaginative varieties of this activity in prose that is playful, intimate, quirky and humane. The soloists range in age from nine to eighty; the locales from Australia to Zaire; the means of masturbation from the commonplace to the bizarre. The young man in Gaza with his hair dryers, the woman in Manilla with her cello bow, the long-eared bat, the charioteer, the candelabra--this swirl of unlikely individuals and objects is brought together in such a way that it floods a world born fresh once more. Illustrated throughout with watercolors by Francesco Clemente that offer an intriguing counterpoint to Mathewss fictions. The illustrator has also collaborated with such writers as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and John Wieners.

About the Author
Harry Mathews was raised in New York and graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in music in 1952. He was the first American member of the literary group Oulipo, whose membership has included Raymond Queneau, Italo Calvino, and Georges Perec. His honors include the Louis Dellec Prize ('74), an NEA grant in fiction writing ('81), and the America Award for The Journalist ('94). He divides his time between New York, Paris, and Key West.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The first paperback edition of Singular Pleasures, sixty-one vignettes on the sole subject of masturbation, records the imaginative varieties of this activity in prose that is playful, intimate, quirky and humane. The soloists range in age from nine to eighty; the locales from Australia to Zaire; the means of masturbation from the commonplace to the bizarre. The young man in Gaza with his hair dryers, the woman in Manilla with her cello bow, the long-eared bat, the charioteer, the candelabra—this swirl of unlikely individuals and objects is brought together in such a way that it floods a world born fresh once more. Illustrated throughout with watercolors by Francesco Clemente that offer an intriguing counterpoint to Mathews's fictions. The illustrator has also collaborated with such writers as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and John Wieners.

FROM THE CRITICS

Cups

Singular Pleasures is wonderfully shocking and a joy to read, and gives a new meaning to reading for pleasure.Alexander Laurence, Cups, 9/93

New York Press

Quietly, with gentle and all-embracing humanism, these prose poems refute the taboos. . . . As a literary device the focus on that singular moment inspires Mathews to bravura feats of compression. . . . So that brief as these glimpses are, they're more than character 'sketches.' You see something more like a whole person in the snap of Mathews' shutter.John Strausbaugh, New York Press, 4/28/93

Artforum

There is nothing pornographic, in the strict sense, about Mathews' text, since it does not seek to arouse the reader: its tone is cool, humorous, and affectionate. His intention is to leave us deeply impressed by the ingenuity, tenacity, and inventiveness with which humans in all places and at all ages have pursued their own pleasure. He succeeds completely.John Ash, Artforum, Summer 1993

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Like seeds of closeness, like some always penultimate leisure to make it up out of an alphabet of selves, these glimpses yield a gentle, conspiring privacy. — Joseph McElroy

Harry Mathews is a playful, precise writer, a modernist with a singular sense of humor, a stylist whose subject matter often seems irrelevant next to the beauty of his language. — Michael Perkins

A great ecumenical work. — Georges Perec