by Nikki Gemmell
When researching novels with an older and sexually active protagonist, this title came up, and although first published in 2004, it is still compelling. As visual artist I immediately recognised the title from Duchamp’s piece, featuring a bride and her suitors. In Gemmell’s novel, a previously faithful wife releases her inhibitions by taking a lover. The book is sometimes referred to as literary porn, which makes me ask when does erotically sensual writing become porn? I find this novel anything but offensive. The protagonist’s obsession with her carnal self and her lover is uncomfortably claustrophobic, offset by disarmingly honest descriptions of a dull but functional marriage. This is a superb piece of writing—divided into chunks, each a short journal entry, composed using the pronoun you. The effect is both intimate and objectifying, best illustrated by example: “Curled around his back, your body his blanket, your palm on his heart because sometimes, you tell him, that’s all a woman wants.”