The Literary Review has announced the shortlist of nominees for its 2011 Bad Sex in Fiction Award.
The Bad Sex in Fiction Award ostensibly aims “to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it”. Personally I’d like to see more sex in literary fiction, not less. And much of the supposedly crude, tasteless, bad writing singled out by Literary Review is actually very good writing. There’s something pathetic about a bunch of mediocre, little-known writers spouting snarky insults about the likes of Haruki Murakami and Jean Auel. But hey, it’s all in good fun.
This year the prize judges have been posting the nominations and short (by necessity) excerpts on Twitter.
- 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami — “A freshly made ear and a freshly made vagina look very much alike.” — “[Her breasts] seemed to be virtually uninfluenced by the force of gravity, the nipples turned beautifully upward, like a vine’s new tendrils seeking sunlight.”
- On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry — “We got rid of our damned clothes, and clung, and he was in me then.”
- The Final Testament of the Holy Bible by James Frey — “Every part of my body sang some song I had never heard.”
- Parallel Stories by Péter Nádas — “They hit gracefully on this exceedingly advantageous position”
- 11.22.63 by Stephen King — “Her head bonked on the door. ‘Ouch,’ I said. ‘Are you all right?’”
- Ed King by David Guterson — “at the moment of their mutual climax, Ed made sure Diane was on top”
- The Land of Painted Caves by Jean Auel — “It surged up, until, with volcanic release, it engulfed them.”
- The Affair by Lee Child — “Then faster and harder. Then we were panting. faster, harder, faster, harder.”
- Dead Europe by Christos Tsiolkas — “My tongue furiously worked the craters”
- Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller — “We’re part of the same organism: some outrageous sea creature”
- Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy — “Henry reached up her thighs … as though quietly imploring”
- The Great Night by Chris Adrian — “His lady lifted to the stars on his impossibly stiff, impossibly elegant cock.”
