Wayne Clark's he & She is a curious exploration of one man’s adventure into BDSM as a submissive. Kit Cayman works as a translator from home, making his own hours, and generally avoiding the 9-to-5 rush around. He prefers his life that way, and it suits his needs. An amateur musician as well, Kit often connects with his upstairs neighbor to have ‘jam sessions.’ However, Kit, also known as K, feels his life is missing something. K begins to message dominatrices about his submissive fantasies of being spanked. As the novel progresses, we bounce around from K’s past and present as he narrates how he came to this point in his life.

It isn’t often you come across a novel chronicling the life of a male submissive. Initially, I was reminded of Charlotte Gainsbourg telling Stellan Skarsgard of her behavior in the film Nymphomaniac. We see various sexual experiences of K, none described too explicitly, with his submissive tendencies coming into play. He attempts to analyze himself, figuring out why he feels the way he does, and why he cannot be happy with a vanilla relationship. I felt there were parts of the text that were unnecessary to K’s exploration of his submissiveness, and more there to describe his background. Overall though, he & She by Wayne Clark presented an interesting concept not often seen in today’s female submissive dominated romance scene.

Wayne Clark's he & She is an intriguing work of literary fiction. It opens with a man on the cusp of death before going back to reveal his journey before that moment. It's almost a reverse coming of age story of the main character, Kit Cayman, who has spent the last fifty years mostly ambling through life, buffeted along by the tides of time that no longer match the idealized version that he had hoped for himself. Numb and lonely, he happens upon an image online that piques his interest and brings up half formed fantasies that had gathered dust since adolescence. It's a picture of a regal woman who happens to be a dominatrix. Determined to learn more about her and through her himself, he contacts her and thus begins a journey of self-discovery, hope, and maybe even love.

This book is far from erotica, despite the sexual nature of the subject matter, but is a character study interested more in peeling back the layers of a man in malaise than titillating voyeuristic readers. I liked how he & She got deep into K's head. So much so that it was easy to forget where one chapter began and another ended as you were swept up in the highs and lows of his journey. Sometimes that made for a difficult read as my first instinct is to distance myself from characters who dwell in funks as their thought process is stifling. But Clark's writing kept me curious and I wanted to see where the path between K and his "Egyptian Princess" would lead. An intriguing character study and a unique read.

He & She by Wayne Clark takes us into the bored life of Kit. He has a boring career, a girlfriend that has been on again and off again, and now he is turning fifty. A man who has lost the vivid colors of life and now only seems to see shades of grey. That is until one night he looks on the internet and finds a photo of a young woman. The photo shows a woman of regal bearing who is beautiful and something about her just brings a spark of color back into his life. What he could not know until he read further down the page is that this woman is a dominatrix.

The first thing you need to know is that this book is no 50 Shades of Grey. It may be BDSM but this book reaches far above 50 Shades in both style and content. What He & She does is dive into the truest meaning of what it is to be human, the desires that we have and just how deep those desires tend to run. This book is both cerebral and entertaining, and I enjoyed following the journey that Kit finds himself on once he decided that he may not be the dominating sexual man he always thought he was, but instead a submissive.

The first part of the book is a little bit different and it could possibly turn some people off if they aren't expecting to be introduced to an older man who only has the pleasure of masturbating left to him as he lies in a hospital bed. With that said, once you move beyond that and dig into the history of Kit's life and the analyzing he does of every choice he has ever made, you will be in for a treat. This is a deep and interesting read and one that I did truly enjoy.

In he & She, author Wayne Clark introduces us to Kit Cayman, a burnt-out translator/musician in New York City - a fifty-year-old man who is starting to feel numb in his life; less passionate sex, failed as well as insipid relationships and, worst of all, the intolerable loneliness. One night, he stumbles upon a web photo of a dominatrix woman. This motivates him to reexamine his desires and learn to deal with the emotional aspects of his life in a new light. Greatly entranced, Cayman’s desire to submit to the dominatrix is harder to quell each day.

Dominatrix, BDSM – these do not exist in my comfort zone nor they will ever. To be frank, I was a little worried that I might have to stop reading. However, the sexual scenes were surprisingly tolerable and the core of the story had more to do with one man’s desire to feel alive and have a purpose in life to look forward to; which is meeting and submitting to his dominatrix. With fine prose and some well-timed humor, the plot is paced well in terms of impact and intelligibility. Sometimes it felt like I was reading someone else’s secret diary and this made it very easy to connect with the protagonist.

All in all, he & She is a compulsive read that sheds some light, if not more, on men and the different layers of sexuality and passion. It is about love and, most important of all, it is about simply being human. A praiseworthy work from Wayne Clark.

'he & She' by Wayne Clark is a story about an individual's declining sexuality and how a picture on the internet triggers his sexual urgency. He wants to see this beautiful woman who has ignited his fantasy from behind his laptop screen. In reality, his life has become unexciting with a string of bad relationships. He does some more research about her and he gets more excited to know that she is a dominatrix. The word gets him all excited and he starts fantasizing and exploring his dormant sexual desires.

The book is raw and the story is realistic. The story takes you through the sexual fantasies of a fifty-year-old who has actually woken up from his unexciting life. The book tells you about the individual sexual preferences of a person which at times can border on being termed 'perverted.' Men like to experiment with sexuality when they are older and they can be experimental and more controversial at that time. It is better not to be judgmental and let them experience their sexual preferences and fantasies.

I found the theme off-beat. It is not a theme that is usually written about. The author has tackled a relevant theme, but there is a slight variation from the normal sexual inclinations. The handling of the theme is very contemporary and it is a story of victory and triumph over one's waning sexuality due to age.

Author Wayne Clark knocks the ball outta the park with this read

When I read the reviews for this book- how could I not buy it?

I bought this book while traveling in Mexico and it made a fabulous read while lolling on the beach in Rincon de Guayabitos, Mexico.
But don’t feel that you have to be on vacation to enjoy this book.
The author sets the stage nicely with a good attention to opening details before we become too engrossed in the story.

Our main character, Kit, is a freelancer. The author knows the freelancer mindset well as I had a few chuckles when it came to Kit’s reaction to some of the freelance gigs since they rang quite true more than once or twice.
Kit is a complex character and the author really does a great job in peeling back the layers to show us the different versions of Kit- the musician Kit, the freelance Kit, the Kit with a younger girlfriend (Selita) and the Kit with his long time girlfriend (Alana).

Hitting mid life, Kit decides to divert off the road well traveled. I won’t give any spoilers but I really liked the interaction between Kit and Alana when this matter unfolded. It rang true and I felt the social veneer really disappeared and we saw the emotions- often raw and sometimes painful as well as wistful.
This is truly a story about life- the choices we make, the regrets, the plans, the hopes and dreams.

I liked Kit a lot- yes he definitely had some flaws – but don’t we all? There was also a sense of wanting to do the right thing and a sense of goodness to him. The author definitely gets kudos from me as Kit’s character was exceptionally well created.

I was impressed that this was a debut book- as I was engrossed from start to finish with zero lag time. I liked this book a lot – I definitely recommend it and hope to see more books from this author.