A Wolfe In No Clothing

‘IT’S not often we manage to get the word otorhinolaryngological into Anorak – and we are indebted for this opportunity to Tom Wolfe.

”Karen gripped hold of the chair and held on for dear life…”

For Wolfe, best known as the author of The Bonfire Of The Vanities, uses the word (which is a convoluted reference to what doctors call ENT) in his latest opus I Am Charlotte Simmons.

Specifically, in the passage from said book that yesterday won the Bad Sex Award from the Literary Review.

The Independent quotes the following extract (which we reproduce with rather more pleasure than the subjects of the piece seem to derive):

”Slither, slither, slither, slither went the tongue. But the hand, that was what she tried to concentrate on, the hand, since it has the entire terrain of her torso to explore and not just the otorhinolaryngological caverns – oh God, it was not just at the border where the flesh of the breast joins the pectoral sheath of the chest – no, the hand was cupping her entire right – Now!”

Mr Wolfe, who beat off strong competition from Andre Brink (who described a woman’s vulva as ”a large exotic mushroom in the fork of a tree, a little pleasure dome if ever I’ve seen one”), became the first winner in the 12-year history of the award to decline an invitation to the presentation ceremony.

We hope for better from next year’s winner, with bookies already tipping Rebecca Loos to sweep all before her.

”Oink, oink, oink, oink went the snout…”’

Posted: 14th, December 2004 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink