Melville House Books

The Guardian rather boldly offer up selections from this year’s finalists for the Bad Sex in Fiction Prize, such as this from Jonathan Littel‘s The Kindly Ones:

I whispered to her: ‘I’m going to pull the lever, I’m going to let the blade drop.’ She begged me: ‘Please, fuck my pussy.’ — ‘No.’ I came suddenly, a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg.

Interesting observation: It was a huge hit in the UK, a huge bomb in the US.

But although Little is an American — except, to impress his girlfriend, he wrote the book in French — most of the books under nomination are UK titles … leading to the obvious: C’mon, Moby readers — what’s the worst sex scene you read in an American book? Comments welcome.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.