MADreads

Literary roll in the hay

November 4th, 2008 Molly - Central

Oh, Robert Olen Butler, you’ve done it again.  You write stories that are so surprising their content still dazes me well after I’ve finished reading them.  The topics are provocative (tabloid headlines, decapitation, now sexual relations) personal and poetic.   Even with the sensitive topics, many are humorous. 

This latest work literally illuminates the afterglow of famous couples – their imagined thoughts, feelings, physical responses and manners during and after sex.  Intercourse:  Stories presents the settings and stories of couples in their most intimate moments.  Like Severance, Intercourse is arranged chronologically with a brief description of each couple and the place and time.  Paired monologues follow.

Some of the pairings are predictable: Adam and Eve, Anthony and Cleopatra, Bonnie and Clyde.  Others are more ingenious.  Who is J. Edgar Hoover really dreaming of while having relations with another?  What has held Bill and Hillary together all these years?  It’s powerful and passionate, but it’s not the sex. 

I wait with much interest for this Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s next venture:  imagined, speculative or extraordinarily exact.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction