Written on the Body.

New York : Knopf, 1993., 1993. Fine. 1st American edition, [1st printing] ; 190 pp. ; 20 cm. ; ISBN: 067942007X :; 9780679420071; LCCN: 92-54475 ; LC: PR6073.I558; Dewey: 823/.914 ; OCLC: 27375575 ; Lambda Literary Award, 1993 ; "The interesting thing about a knot is its formal complexity. Even the simplest pedigree knot, the trefoil, with its three roughly symmetrical lobes, has mathematical as well as artistic beauty. For the religious, Kind Solomon's knot is said to embody the essence of all knowledge. For carpet makers and cloth weavers all over the world, the challenge of the knot lies in the rules of its surprises. Knots can change but they must be well-behaved. An informal knot is a messy knot. Louise and I were held by a single loop of love. The cord passing round our bodies had no sharp twists or sinister turns. Our wrists were not tied and there was no noose about our necks. In Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries a favourite sport was to fasten two fighters together with a strong rope and let t hem beat each other to death. Often it was death because the loser couldn't back off and the victor rarely spared him. The victor kept the rope and tied a knot in it. He had only to swing it through the streets to terrify money from passers-by."--excerpt ; " ...chronicles the consuming affair between the narrator, who is given neither name nor gender, and the beloved, a complex and confused married woman" ; black cloth with metallic red lettering, in photographic illustrated dustjacket ; FINE/FINE