Sex in Canadian fiction is the angle of Peter Darbyshire’s review of Stephen Marche’s Raymond and Hannah on the CBC Arts website. In CanLit, Darbyshire laments, “sex is rarely a pleasurable event. Instead, it is often used as a metaphor for politics, identity, globalization, consumerism — almost everything but sex itself.” Marche’s book turns out to be no different, though Darbyshire’s review is still an admiring one in the end. “Erotic? No. Sexy? Yes. In a Canadian sort of way.”

In any case, readers may be more titillated by the sidebar Darbyshire’s come up with: “The 10 most memorable sex scenes in Canadian literature,” which include everything from Marian Engel’s notorious ursine love in The Bear to Barbara Gowdy’s tale of necrophilia and its discontents, “We So Seldom Look on Love.”

Related links:
Click here for the CBC Arts story on sex in CanLit