Author: Tom Wolfe
Enjoyment Rating: **** (although I am embarrassed to admit this)
This book would be rated: NC-17 or X for extremely graphic sex scenes
Source: Audible for iTunes
Books I've read this year: 123
A few days ago I was reading the newspaper and saw that Tom Wolfe's novel Back to Blood had been nominated for a "worst sex in fiction" award and I laughed out loud. I'd just finished reading Back to Blood and I was having a hard time sorting out in my mind if Wolfe was a genius or just a dirty old man. I will say this-- I did a LOT of fast-forwarding through this book.
Back to Blood takes place in Miami. Maybe that says it all. Wolfe says that "New York is the city of money. Washington D.C. is the city of power. Miami is the city of sex," so it shouldn't come as a surprise that everyone thinks below the belt in Back to Blood, a story populated with (hot) Russian oligarchs, (hot) Cuban police officers and nurses, and (hot) Haitian college students. The main characters, Magdalena and Hector, start the book as a couple, but Magdalena dumps Hector for the (hot) white doctor she works for. As Magdalena and Hector grow apart, the new situations they find themselves in have a way of working to bring them back together, under much different circumstances. The book deals with power, corruption, race relations, and lots, and lots, and lots of sex.
One thing that I really enjoyed about the book is that Wolfe creates two main characters who are both deeply flawed, but also sympathetic. I wanted Hector and Magdalena to gain a bit of self-mastery, but also to find success and happiness in Miami.
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