Throwback Thursday: Lace

In which I share vague recollections about books I read long ago that have stuck with me. 

Since I've read a couple of sex-heavy books recently, I'm going to stick with that theme here. I'm reaching waaaay back to a book that my friends all passed around in middle school until someone's mom got wind of it and snatched it away: Lace by Shirley Conran. I don't remember who first got hold of this book, but I am forever indebted to that person for an image that has been seared into my brain ever since then.

Now I don't recall a thing about the plot, and I don't recall if I even read the whole book or just the juicy parts. According to Goodreads, the novel is about four women in their forties who are called together by a young actress who wants to know which of them is her mother. The women have been sharing their secrets for decades and refuse to answer, so the young woman travels around the world trying to learn the truth herself. Also, everybody in this book is rich and glamorous, which I'm pretty sure was a requirement for books published in the 1980s.

Here is all that I remember about this book: there is a scene in which a man and a woman are getting it on, and he reaches into a goldfish bowl next to the bed, pulls out a fish, shoves it in her hooha, and then lays on top of her so she cannot move (she is understandably trying to struggle), after which she then enjoys the feeling of the fish fluttering around inside her. It was horrifying, and still is. Imagine reading such a thing when you are around 12 years old and are still formulating your ideas about what happens during sex.

Needless to say, it was unforgettable. By the way, Lace has a 3.78 star rating on Goodreads, which isn't too shabby, and there's also a sequel creatively called Lace 2. Both books, surprisingly, are available in my library system so I'm wondering if they are actually good since they've been kept in some libraries' collections for more than 30 years after publication. I'm unlikely to read them, but certainly let me know if you do.