The reviews for 11.22.63 have been fantastic. King is the master of his craft! His scenes are powerful, fresh and driven. Is there any weakness in his writing?
The Atlantic Wire has a summery of a "shortlist" from the Literary Review -- a list King is on. So what's the list? Well, this is a bit awkward, but it's. . . "the shrotlist for this year's Bad Sex in Fiction Award." (Literary Review )
The Atlantic notes that "the publication highlighted the clinical, overheated, and/or ham-fisted bedroom scenes that helped each text earn its on the list." The Huffington post says that this year's winner will be announced at a ceremony at the Naval & Military Club in London.
Here is the line that caught their attention, "She was wearing jeans. The fabric whispered under my palm. She leaned back and her head bonked on the door. 'Ouch!' I said. 'Are you all right?'"
So that line gets him an award? I haven't reached that point in the book, but on its own it's not that awkward -- is it?
The Literary Review wrote, "In a year in which literary awards have come under fire for parochialism and dumbing-down, Literary Review is proud to uphold and recognise literary excellence from around the world. Authors in the running hail from, among other nations, the USA, Hungary, Japan and Australia. Two are annually mentioned in the same breath as the Nobel Prize."
So, simple question friends: Are King's love scenes awkward?
Personally, I don't think they are. I can't claim to be an expert on sex in literature -- or, for that matter (sigh) on sex in real life -- but I'd be curious to read a sex scene the people behind this "award" would point to as being an example of how literary sex ought to be written.
ReplyDeleteAnd frankly, I find it almost unthinkable that there wouldn't be any number of romance novels released this year which had vastly worse-written sex scenes than any of the ones King has in "11/22/63."
Ultimately, I find that I don't care much. It isn't an aspect of King's writing that I find to be one of his strong suits, but it never seems distractingly bad to me. It's just ... there. That's not bad; at worst, it's mediocre.
I agree, Bryant. It's not his strength, but the scenes never seem to distract or harm the story. Remember Anne rice wrote a bunch of sex novels under some fake name -- then proudly came out to declare that she was the author! I actually find her to be more awkard at times, but her books have so much sex that you miss the awkward ones in the ocean.
ReplyDeletedavid
First of all, I'm only about halfway through the book at this time. But I *do* think there's been more sex than usual in this one. It's not badly written, but it got a little redundant after awhile. We get it, they enjoyed boinking.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Sadie is accident-prone, which is why she hit her head in that passage you quoted. It was humorous (not LOL-worthy, but not embarrassingly bad writing either). Personally, I love the line, "The fabric whispered under my palm." Shrug...