"Acts of Service" by Lillian Fishman

The narrator, Eve, considers herself fairly attractive with a good body. She lives in New York with a straight female flatmate, Fatima. Eve's "baffled by her effortless stability". She's in a lesbian relationship with Romi, a doctor, but feels she should be using her body more for sex. Some nude selfies online draw the attention of artist Olivia, but it's her boss Nathan who's really interested in her. Nathan's an investor who specialises in ethical, artistic causes. Olivia (who sleeps mostly with women) has fancied Nathan for years, though she only had sex with him 2 months before. Eve and Nathan have regular sex, which Eve enjoys much more than she expected. She's attracted by Nathan's dominance, his sexual confidence. Nathan says that Olivia enjoys being cuckolded. Eve's not convinced. She watches Olivia carefully. It's a rather complex triangle.

Eve thinks that gays have to suppress, so they prize honesty. Later in life they explore their repressed memories, which encourages self-analysis.

She's a barista, though she could live off her father for a while. Her father discovered she was a lesbian when she was 15. He told her that loving someone who's like you is easy - it's more exciting to have to "build a bridge". He thought men were still expected to take on the duties of men, but in addition, because of feminists, they had to do extra things too. He told her that she should try to understand men (meaning "understand him"?)

Nathan's a good, responsive lover who's slept with 100s of women. He finds sex with new people interesting. He thinks the first time with a new lover, people do what they think they should. He lets her be vain, be proud of her body. Olivia sometimes sketches them while they make love, though she's possessive about Nathan's semen. Olivia's angry when Eve asks to see Olivia's paintings. Nathan tries to help them make it up by suggesting a threesome. Eve has already watched Nathan and Olivia together. Nathan slapped Olivia at the end, consensually. The observing helps Olivia and Eve separate sex from love. Olivia's also excited when she watches Nathan sack someone - which he does well.

Romi breaks up with her, partly because she's in love with someone she hasn't yet had sex with.

Eve's more upset seeing Nathan and Olivia kiss than seeing them make love. Olivia tells Eve about her fears of breaking up with Nathan. Eve asks Nathan for his views about her, especially in relation to Olivia. Eve thinks that love is the gratitude for how we are made to feel.

They break up. A month later she invites him to her flat for the first time. He tells her he's been married to Helen for 7 years. She, Olivia and Nathan were at college together. Helen knows what's going on. Eve picks a girl up, and tries to act like Nathan.

Nathan says that an interviewee claims that he offered her a job in return for sex. She's suing him. He asks her to make a deposition - a character witness. She's asked not to mention Olivia.

Lawyers quiz her, ask her whether she felt powerless or manipulated. She says it was consensual manipulation. She's asked about Olivia. She's told that Nathan's affair with Olivia was against company policy. She's asked about feminism and equality, about loyalty.

She visited Olivia's first show at a gallery, recognising her body in a painting. Near the end, Olivia has a monolog about Nathan's importance to her, how he made her forget herself. The final sentence is Eve's "His was the greatest act of service I have ever received"

Other reviews

• Becca Rothfeld (a masterly defence of sex for its own sake ... At first glance, it seems as though Acts of Service stages a contest between Eve’s sensuality and her scruples. Desire is quite literally put on trial when Nathan is accused of workplace harassment and Eve is called on to give evidence. But, in fact, Fishman’s elegant novel ventures an alternative sexual ethic, one unconstrained by conventions but nonetheless fiercely attentive to what we owe one another)
• Joe Stanek (If the entanglement feels a bit forced at times, literary references offer an entire story of their own that tells what these people want from each other)
• Sophia Stewart (she realizes that the kind of attention she craves is troublingly heteronormative: The male gaze turns her on ... The threesome, like most, eventually implodes too, at which point Acts of Service loses all momentum. )