Can’t Get Enough Lovin’

Wow! I included the enticing cover of Matthew Bradley’s 1964 novel, Adultery in Suburbia, in a post I wrote several years back about scandal fiction set in America’s ’burbs. But I’ve never actually read that book, never even held a copy in my hand.

The same can’t be said for Jared Shurin, one of the editors of the blog Pornokitsch. Today he reviews Bradley’s novel--and not always with the utmost adulation. He calls it “a poisonous little tract, disguised as a pornographic one,” and goes on to write:

Adultery in Suburbia is an emotional snuff film--terrible people inflicting hideous damage upon one another. (Alternatively, a Jonathan Franzen book, but 1/10th the length and 1/1000th as likely to ever appear on Oprah.) Readers seeking a prurient escape will [be] best off ignoring the (hilarious) cover and searching for other outlets. As an expression of Sartre’s “hell is other people,” Adultery in Suburbia is as good as it gets--a modern period drama packed with viciously contemptible people, all receiving their just deserts.

You’ll find Jared’s review here.