Home > The Book Page > Archives > 2007 > December > 04 > Entry
Bad Sex in Fiction Award
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, it was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it, so once again the Literary Review, a London magazine, has brought forth its annual Bad Sex in Fiction Awards.
I won’t keep you in suspense. This year’s winner is Norman Mailer, who died last month after a towering career and then got this.
“We are sure that he would have taken the prize in good humor,” the judges said at a ceremony last week, and, seeing as how it’s Mailer, they may be right. He was “honored” for a sex scene in “The Castle in the Forest” in which Adolf Hitler’s parents conceive the dictator.
Much of the fun of the “Bad Sex in Fiction Awards” stems from their focus on serious, frequently literary, writing from our best writers, rather than picking on cheesy soft-core porn paperbacks. On the short-list (Brit-speak for “nominees”) this year was Ian McEwan’s “On Chesil Beach,” which is about a bad wedding night, and Christopher Rush’s novel, “Will,” about Shakespeare, in which the bard rhapsodizes about his favorite aspects of Anne Hathaway with a little more specificity than we might like. Paul Theroux and John Updike have been short-listed in the past.
Sometimes, though, readers need to take the awards with so many grains of salt. Or saltpeter. Sometimes a talented novelist writes a sex scene because it’s his or her intention to evoke disgust, or make you think about what’s happening in a specific wayt. Such is the case with Gary Shteyngart’s novel “Absurdistan,” a deftly written book I highly recommend, even though the passage on the LitRev’s website is pretty gross. That’s the point. Same with McEwan’s “Chesil Beach,” and with a recent winner, Tom Wolfe’s “I Am Charlotte Simmons.”
Let’s keep this PG-rated, fellow heavy-breathers, but have you read any of the sex scenes mentioned here, and what did you think of them? How does a really detailed sex scene in a novel affect you as you’re reading it? Remember: PG-rated.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: News and Reviews
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Jeff
December 4, 2007 8:41 AM | Link to this
I haven’t read any of those, but there were a few disturbing sex scenes I have read.
Among those I have read: The mulitple rape scenes (either outright or the woman in question was highly drugged) in Without Remorse, though in Without Remorse’s defense, the scenes between Kelly and the woman that leads to his turning into John Clark are very tender - almost a Sparks level.
One of the murder scenes in Lee Child’s first work, Killing Floor is pretty disturbing, more for its sexual mutilation component. The ones involving Reacher, his primary character, are more Bond-esque.
Similarly to Killing Floor, there was another mutilation scene that I have LONG remembered the basics of, even though I’ve only read the book in question ONE TIME, and that was LITERALLY around a decade ago. The book in question is little known - Code Alpha by Joseph Massucci.
Another disturbing book was Venom by Jeffrey Ames. The killer in the book tortures his victims by having brown recluses bite them, and is a necrophile.
By Ramona
December 4, 2007 10:22 AM | Link to this
Oh man, honorable mention should go to American Psycho. The sex here is kinky and gruesome but also disturbingly appropriate in the context of the book. It’s a fascinating read.
By Oogie
December 4, 2007 11:26 AM | Link to this
I would add more oogity in the boogity.
By Kat
December 4, 2007 12:18 PM | Link to this
I started On Chesil Beach but haven’t finished it yet. It makes me feel claustrophobic. There’s so much dread about the impending sex scene.
By Dan
December 4, 2007 11:19 PM | Link to this
The sex scene, if it can be called that, in Tony Morrison’s “Beloved” is pretty confusing and disturbing.
Also, the sex scene in “A Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood is pretty dispassionate.
By Kat
December 6, 2007 9:25 AM | Link to this
Finished On Chesil Beach. Ick. It was like an Edwardian drawing-room comedy of manners, just without the Edwardian era, the drawing room, or the comedy. All that was left was stifling formality.