Hard to know what to say here. Was it a parody of pornography? An attempt to show how ludicrous American society's fascination with sex has become? A nutty comic immersion in the silly excesses of euphemism about sex? A demonstration of how stupid and tedious passionless, emotionless sex can be? ...
Nicholson Baker has gotten a lot of attention with his latest book "House of Holes," with a host of highfalutin sources extolling its both its literary merit and its over-the-top eroticism. The New York Times, for example, calls it a “glorious filthfest,” and "as funny as it is filthy."As someone...
The last time a US president and Nicholson Baker appeared in the same sentence, the subject was sex: In 1998, Kenneth Starr discovered that the world's most famous intern had given Bill Clinton a copy of Mr. Baker's erotic novel "Vox."But this time around, the subject is violence: Baker's upcomin...
Vox is a highly entertaining novel from the highly observant author Nicholson Baker. If you’re familiar on how his first novel The Mezzanine was just about an office employer’s lunch expedition to buy new shoe laces, you’ll have an idea how this brilliant author makes a premise that sounds a bit...
I’d never read anything by Baker, and knew only of his book Vox, which created something of a sensation back in the late 70s or early 80s, with what I recall was a gimmick: the entire novel was a phone call or series of phone calls. What I don’t recall was who was talking; I have the impression ...