Canadians who are ignoring their government's call to commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812 now have another point of national pride to rally around, or not: a surprise victory in The Literary Review's annual Bad Sex in Fiction Prize.
The uncoveted prize, awarded on Tuesday at a lavish ceremony in London attended by some 400 (apparently clothed) literati, went to the Calgary-born novelist Nancy Huston for a steamy scene in her novel “Infrared†featuring a photographer, her lover and much talk of “flesh, that archaic kingdom that brings forth tears and te rrors, nightmares, babies and bedazzlements,†to say nothing of a long passage that builds to a climax of “undulating space.â€
Ms. Huston, who did not attend the ceremony, is only the third woman to win the prize since its founding in 1993, edging out a testosterone-heavy shortlist that included Tom Wolfe, Craig Raine and Sam Mills. Two early distaff-side favorites, J.K. Rowling's “Casual Vacancy†and E L James's “Fifty Shades of Grey,†were disqualified: Ms. Rowling's book because it was deemed insufficiently bad, and Ms. James's because the rules exclude books intended as erotic or pornographic.
Ms. Huston, 59, who lives in Paris and writes in French before translating her own work back into English, has won plenty of more conventional accolades, including France's prestigious Prix Goncourt des Lycéens and Prix Femina. In a st atement read at Monday's ceremony Ms. Huston, (who is married to the philosopher Tzvetan Todorov) took the honor in stride, saying, “I hope this prize will incite thousands of British women to take close-up photos of their lovers' bodies in all states of array and disarray.â€
Recent winners include David Guterson, Jonathan Littell and John Updike, who in 2008 was given a special lifetime achievement award.
