Stiff Competition

Forget the Emmys, Grammys, Oscars or even the Cy Young awards. What really captures my attention is the annual worst-sex-writing in fiction prize put on by Literary Review. Well, this year's finalists have just been announced. As usual there are some distinguished writers there, such as Paul Theroux and Amos Oz, and the rocker Nick Cave -- but only one woman. Getting the most attention is the legendary Philip Roth, whose new novel, The Humbling (indeed) focuses on an older man who gets a lesbian to "turn" for him. Here is an excerpt that helped get him on the, so to speak, short list. The geezer and the former lesbo pick up another woman for a threesome:

"This was not soft porn. This was no longer two unclothed women caressing and kissing on a bed. There was something primitive about it now, this woman-on-woman violence, as though in the room filled with shadows, Pegeen were a magical composite of shaman, acrobat, and animal. It was as if she were wearing a mask on her genitals, a weird totem mask, that made her into what she was not and was not supposed to be. There was something dangerous about it. His heart thumped with excitement – the god Pan looking on from a distance with his spying, lascivious gaze."