In literature, unlike life, one thing that's often better than good sex is bad sex.
That is, reading bad sex scenes. Britain's Literary Review has announced the nominees for its 19th annual Bad Sex in Literature Prize, including such heavyweights as Stephen King (11.22.63), Sebastian Barry (On Canaan's Side) and Haruki Murakami (1Q84) among the 12 contenders. No Canadians were named to the short list.
Among the best of the worst sentences?
“[Her breasts] seemed virtually uninfluenced by the force of gravity” (Murakami); “My tongue furiously worked the craters” (Christos Tsiolkas's Dead Europe); “We got rid of our damned clothes, and clung, and he was in me then” (Barry).
The Literary Review posted some of the offending sentences on its Twitter feed.
The “winner” is named Dec. 6.
