A friend of mine refuses to read any novels by women, claiming they are all pathologically obsessed with sex. He could well use this novel as an example. The tenth of the author’s books, this is set in a coed prep school in the fictional town of Lowlands, Vermont in the fall of 2009. Sexual shenanigans abound not only within the school student body of libidinous teens but within the faculty, and between faculty and students. A group of boys keeps a secret coded computer file rating of the girls facility and skills in providing oral sex, awarding a ‘Dulcinea prize’ to the best girl at fellatio. The new faulty teacher, with a dark background of her own, and a group of disillusioned, sexually frustrated girls eventually break the code of the ‘Darkroom’ boys and sabotage their sick enterprise. The uproar destroys reputations far and wide, and the prep school itself, with dire consequences for some.
In the age of the Me Too movement, there may be an important message about the imbalance between the ability of males and females to find sexual fulfillment, even in modern societies in this tale. If so, that message is obscured by the sheer volume of pornographic description and detail. There are some interesting literary twists and insights. One of many good quotes: “Some people count sheep. What finally sent me to sleep was cycling through possible job alternatives, in alphabetical order. For soporific purposes, you can’t leave anything off the table. I fell asleep sometime after carpet installer.”
I am no prude and do not object to use of ‘course language’ and explicit sexual descriptions in the dialogue of characters in novels, if there is an important underlying message, but I tried and failed to find that message in this novel. And it seems a poor substitute for subtlety and imagination when used by an author in narrating his or her story.
For younger readers who perhaps enjoy reading about the graphic details of the sexual exploits of others, this may be an interesting read, but this old curmudgeon did not enjoy it.
The Passionate Reader 