Chalk up another literary awards snub for Jonathan Franzen. Although the Freedom author was among the nominees for the Literary Review‘s annual Bad Sex in Fiction prize, he lost out to British author Rowan Somerville. And, judging by the bit the Guardian excerpts from his novel The Shape of Her, Somerville surely deserves the win. Just try and read “like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her” without shuddering!
Somerville did take the dubious honor in stride, saying, “”There is nothing more English than bad sex, so on behalf of the entire nation I would like to thank you.” Perhaps luckily for Americans, the book doesn’t seem to have found a stateside publisher yet. Read a few more libido-killing excerpts from the novel after the jump — if you can stomach them.
“He unbuttoned the front of her shirt and pulled it to the side so that her breast was uncovered, her nipple poking out, upturned like the nose of the loveliest nocturnal animal, sniffing the night. He took it between his lips and sucked the salt from her.”
Pubic hair “like desert vegetation following an underground stream.”
He “twisted onto her belly like a fish flipping itself.”
[via GalleyCat]
Comments (2)
it is worth saying that anything taken out of context as these lines are …is misleading..make up your own mind you sheep…everyone in the UK knows these awards are given to anyone who writes seriously about sex…why else would Franzen and mailer be there…God you guys are lazy journos
[...] sexual nature in otherwise sound literary novels.” Rowan Somerville was the 2010 winner for some godawful passages in his second novel, The Shape of Her. Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen, was also nominated, as was Mr. [...]
Post a new comment