Lady Chatterley's Brother

Why are Nicholson Baker's three erotic novels so unsexy? And what can he learn from preeminent Spanish novelist Javier Marias? These questions are answered in "Lady Chatterley's Brother: Why Nicholson Baker Can't Write About Sex, and Why Javier Marias Can," the first in a new series of pamphlet-length ebooks on the most interesting writers and issues in contemporary literature. This 70-page book of twin essays jumps off from Nicholson Baker's most recent novel, House of Holes, explaining why that book is a failure (but for interesting reasons). From there it explains just why Spaniard Javier Marias does right what Baker does wrong. Collectively, these two essays chart out the history of sex writing in the 20th century: where it came from, where it's been, and where it's headed. Our conclusion: Baker's ever-more-pornographic writing is a turn-off and a dead end; Marias' ambiguous, sexy seductions predict the future of literary sex.

"Lady Chatterley's Brother" is the first in a series of small ebooks of about 70 pages that dig deeply into the most interesting writers and issues in contemporary literature. Slightly too long for the Web, but not long enough for a full-on, printed book, these essays are a perfect fit for ereaders like the Kindle.