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Bad Sex for Jonathan Littell

01.01.70 | Katie Allen

Jonathan Littell has beaten stiff competition from Philip Roth, Nick Cave and Paul Theroux to the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award for his novel The Kindly Ones (Chatto).

The awards were announced yesterday evening (30th November) at the In & Out Club in London, where the accolade was awarded by actor Charles Dance and accepted by Littell's editor on his behalf.

The Kindly Ones, originally published in French, was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 2006.

The judges said: "It is in part a work of genius. However, a mythologically inspired passage and lines such as 'I came suddenly, a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg' clinched the award for The Kindly Ones. We hope he takes it in good humour." Littell was unavailable for comment.

The other shortlisted titles were: The Humbling by Philip Roth; The Infinities by John Banville; Rhyming Life and Death by Amos Oz; The Naked Name of Love by Sanjida O’Connell; The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave; Ten Storey Love Song by Richard Milward; Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy; The Rescue Man by Anthony Quinn; and A Dead Hand by Paul Theroux.

Last year the award was won by Rachel Johnson for Shire Hell, and John Updike received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

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