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Vox

3.41 of 5 stars 3.41 · rating details · 2,927 ratings · 272 reviews

Baker has written a novel that remaps the territory of sex--solitary and telephonic, lyrical and profane, comfortable and dangerous. Written in the form of a phone conversation between two strangers, Vox is an erotic classic that places the author in the first rank of America's major writers. Reading tour.

Paperback, 176 pages

Published January 26th 1993 by Vintage (first published 1992)

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Mar 28, 2013 Manny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, well-i-think-its-funny, pooh-dante

There's such a diversity of opinions concerning this book that I can't bring myself to take sides. Instead, I present

Your cut-out-and-keep do-it-yourself Vox reviewing kit

This (ground-breaking/tedious/overhyped/short) novel does for phone sex what (Last Tango in Paris/Lady Chatterley's Lover/Death in the Afternoon/The Bell Jar/Ben Hur) did for (sodomy/gamekeepers/bullfighting/suicide/chariot-racing).

The rest of this review is in my book What Pooh Might Have Said to Dante and Other Futile Specul...more

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Jun 24, 2008 Yulia marked it as left-unfinished

What surprised me about this book was just how boring it was. I'd purchased it in college, after having gotten to know (as much as one can know someone you can't trust) over several months of almost daily calls the random phone sex caller at my college. And, as happens in this book, our talks ranged in subject from his religious views (which I found quite odd, considering how he'd found me) to philosophy to my negative views of myself. And so my expectations were very high when I found out about...more

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Apr 22, 2009 Evan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: none-too-good, 2009-reads, sexuality, pop-culture-misc

I have to give the author credit for bravery, for writing something this poorly and having no compunction or fear about putting it out there for all eyes to see and minds to ponder. It would be like me putting the first drafts of my own aborted novels out there; works that I simply couldn't bear having anyone look at. I learned a few things: that the discoloration of genitalia on Roman statues is due to people cumming on them, and that guys hang around the frozen food section of the store to see...more

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Nov 15, 2008 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Someone willing expand their vocabulary.

Recommended to Jim by: Free book with a Latin word for a title. Who wouldn't read it?

Vox...If you are a slang and vocabulary junkie who can read inappropriate adult material, then I very highly
recommend Nicholson Baker as your new favorite author.

I laughed so hard out loud and alone while reading this book. I learned so many new terms for body parts and acts of sin from Vox.

Of course, ten years after the book came out, they're more common terms. Not between you and I, of course. We're too polite when we speak on an adult chat line to each other.

Vox is a very short book, less th...more

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Jul 24, 2010 Anil rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ok, so I am done with the book. And I am glad to report that the book has a "happy ending" as you are bound to expect of a book like this.

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I am already getting enough ribs for carrying around this book.

So right off the bat, I have to say, yes this is smut. But remember no pictures. And if you are looking for a turn on, you are much better off reading blogs or turning to the Internet than this book.

In any human interaction or even a solo experience, there is the moment when it...more Ok, so I am done with the book. And I am glad to report that the book has a "happy ending" as you are bound to expect of a book like this.

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I am already getting enough ribs for carrying around this book.

So right off the bat, I have to say, yes this is smut. But remember no pictures. And if you are looking for a turn on, you are much better off reading blogs or turning to the Internet than this book.

In any human interaction or even a solo experience, there is the moment when it happens and what happens. But then there is an iceberg beneath the surface. Of things that brought you to the point. Of the words you say. And if you are like me, the fear of not finding the right words or fear of having used the wrong words or the fear of being misunderstood. There are all the memories you bring and all the hopes you have for the interaction. We are individuals in these moments but there is the weight of society that we belong to and the roles we play that shape these moments. There are times when these interactions are just right and you can dwell on aspects of it and you can spent hours reflecting on it and it can be rapturous. And sometimes these are painful and you wish you could change everything because the interaction was not what it was supposed to be.

You could write a one page novel about a conversation between a man and a woman or make a 5 minute movie or you could write a 160 page book or make a 90 minute movie (I am thinking of the Linklater (sp?) movies, you know the ones where Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy spend hours talking!). Sometimes, they are enjoyable and sometimes they are just dreary.

In this book, the reflections and digressions (all about sex or mostly about sex) are not paragraph descriptions. They are part of the conversation. Which is why I am sure, lot of people say: who talks like that on the phone?

At times, I can enjoy exploring the iceberg, but other times I would much rather be in the moment and dance!

Let me finish the book before giving my final verdict ....

P.S. If you are looking for a real review of the book, here is a link to a funny and very appropriate one: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....
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Jul 12, 2010 Jasmine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american

Do you know why emoticons exist?

The theory in psychology is that a large portion of communication is nonverbal and an even larger portion of this is actually specifically facial. So what happens when you take seeing someone out of the picture? "I liked your voice" "What are you wearing" "which hand" and that sort of thing. I am left to wonder if perhaps phone sex party lines might be the reason men can no longer read body language. Gentleman, crossed arms means don't approach. This book is inte...more

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Mar 09, 2011 notgettingenough rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-lit

So last night. What did you do?

I finished Vox. I couldn’t resist. COULDN’T put it down.

Of course. Vox. And?

And what?

Well, did you…? While you were reading it? Tell me how you were.

I was pretty much as I am now. Dressed. Sitting up. Left leg crossed other the other. I mean, I wasn’t at my computer. I was sitting at the kitchen table.

But you didn’t find it that sexy then. If you didn’t - ….?

Oh, it was incredibly sexy. Why do you think I couldn’t put it down? Actually, I have a confession to make…

Y...more

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Nov 12, 2007 Tatiana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Tatiana by: new school writing teacher

this guy... my writing teacher explained his books as basically huge magnifying glasses. one of his books, i believe, takes place entirely on one person's escalator ride from one floor to another. there's another book where someone picks lint out of his belly button for the entire length of the book. in this book, this guy calls a 900 number and has phone sex. that's the entire book. so we're talking a time span of a few hours at the very most. what's interesting though (and the book is entirely...more

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Mar 26, 2008 Brent Legault rated it 2 of 5 stars

. . .Vox, a single-issue novel (sex), also a single-mode novel (dialogue), and further disembodied by the fact the the two protagonists never touch or meet, communicating only by party line. The object, the thing, in this case, is the telephone -- that frictionless technology. Vox is frictionless too, and thus meets a contemporary demand: it asks nothing of you. Modern tendencies -- safe sex, pornography, human dwindling -- are present as accepted guests, not as intruders. Sunniness and perversi...more

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Feb 17, 2008 matt rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: satire, miniature

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 20, 2009 Molly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After finishing up Double Fold, Baker's fantastic treatise on the phasing-out of paper (and therefore invaluable and irreplaceable archives) at important libraries here and abroad, I had to go back and revisit Vox, his very well-received phone sex novel. The book consists in a phone sex conversation between Jim and Abby, two adults who serendipitously meet through what is probably a more explicit version of LavaLife (anyone else see those late-night commercials?). This, I know, sounds like a lam...more

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May 03, 2013 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Over breakfast this morning my wife told me that it’s National Masturbation Month and so I suppose it’s appropriate that the first book I read this month was Nicholson Baker’s Vox. It’s a book I’ve been aware of for many years—I remember flicking through a copy in John Menzies in 1992 when it first came out—but avoided it and I’ve only read it now after reading three other books by him because I’m becoming increasingly interested in dialogue novels. In that respect the book did not disappoint an...more
Over breakfast this morning my wife told me that it’s National Masturbation Month and so I suppose it’s appropriate that the first book I read this month was Nicholson Baker’s Vox. It’s a book I’ve been aware of for many years—I remember flicking through a copy in John Menzies in 1992 when it first came out—but avoided it and I’ve only read it now after reading three other books by him because I’m becoming increasingly interested in dialogue novels. In that respect the book did not disappoint and has underlined my belief that less really is more if you have a reader willing to do his or her fair share of the work. I’d already read his dialogue novel Checkpoint but not being very interested in (or knowledgeable about) American politics I could’ve enjoyed it more. Sex, on the other hand, I have enjoyed on numerous occasions but I’ve never been very interested in reading about it. Pornography I see the point to, erotica not so much. I was curious how Baker, knowing his fondness for minutia, would approach the subject. The first thing was to establish two believable and likeable protagonists and I think he doesn’t do too bad a job there considering this is their first conversation. They certainly are in no rush to get to the final act although the Scot in my kept toting up the cost of this long phone call and struggled to imagine paying ninety-five cents per half minute for as long as this book is.

All readers are voyeurs. We may not peek in other people’s living rooms in real life but that doesn’t take away from the fact we are desperately interested in what other people do and think so much so that we’re willing to sit almost motionless for hours on end to satisfy our curiosity. We want to see. We want to know. We want to experience—albeit vicariously—what they’re experiencing. And I cannot pretend for a minute that once I’d got a few pages into this book I wasn’t curious about how things would pan out. They were sweeter than I expected, open and honest up to a point and yet also a bit too civilised and polite. I thought her use of the euphemism ‘dithering’ was delightful and strangely I found I bonded more with her then him.

On the whole I liked the book. But I didn’t love it. That said Baker’s the kind of guy who could write about paint drying and make it interesting. I’ll definitely read him again but not for the sex.
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Apr 24, 2013 Katheter, all the world's a. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rather than being a turn-on, this made me really, really sad to read. I actually cried through much of it. Though perhaps this emotional reaction proves the book's power. Draws attention to how much realer than The Real a fictive mode or a fantasy can be in terms of capturing the distortion of emotional texture. But I hated it anyway. Chafed at the good-natured misogyny and rote, unsatisfying sex positivity. The phone sex conversation that comprises this short work amounts to a constant, muted s...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a book I expected to find precious and overly high-concept and ended up enjoying immensely, and thinking about for a long time after I was done. It is basically a transcript of a phone-sex conversation over the course of several hours, written down with absolutely minimal frills (no descriptions beyond the conversation, no verbs beyond "said" or "asked," no adjectives or adverbs to describe the voices of the two participants). And yet Jim and Abby (whose names I remember although they're...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Courtney Johnston rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I'm a communication generation too old for this book. And a reading generation too young - it's a book I've inherited, from the daring 1990s, published in the same year I was in Form II. I read and loved 'The Anthologist' last year or the year before, and since then I've been picking up and putting down the other books by Baker on the shelf - not my books - reading the blurbs and wondering if I'm up for them.

I'm not sure what the compulsion was that pushed me to finally pick Vox up the other nig...more I'm a communication generation too old for this book. And a reading generation too young - it's a book I've inherited, from the daring 1990s, published in the same year I was in Form II. I read and loved 'The Anthologist' last year or the year before, and since then I've been picking up and putting down the other books by Baker on the shelf - not my books - reading the blurbs and wondering if I'm up for them.

I'm not sure what the compulsion was that pushed me to finally pick Vox up the other night - perhaps, purely, that I was looking for a short read, and the slightly narrowed rectangle of this slim book made the decision for me.

Vox consists entirely of a single episode of phone sex, conducted between a man and a woman in different cities over a pay-per-minute chat line. On the phone. A phone with push-able buttons. A receiver that can be cradled between ear and shoulder, leaving the hands free. I kept on thinking of my iPhone whenever there was a phone detail - a little wondering, a little pondering, a little nostalgia.

I feel faintly embarrassed to admit how much I liked this book. It's dirty, and funny, and above all literate. There are some erotic passages, and others that would brush up against pornographic if you weren't paying attention to the rumbling rush of sentences, the inventiveness, the absurdity of the substitution of play words for straightforward words. The conversationalists recount their sexual experiences, their fantasies, and craft fantasies for each other. Occasionally they break character - they take intellectual pleasure in their carnal conversation, they marvel at finding each other, they bat about witticisms, they set each other challenges ('Tell me a story in which ...').

There was one story I particularly loved. Not the denouement, but the set up:

What happened was, you went to a program in a university, and you got a masters in silversmithing, with some postgraduate work in pendant mounting and bead drilling, and you found you had a very good eye, and you were really able to me bracelets and earrings and especially necklaces that looked good on people, not that good in the display case, in fact sometimes your work even looked a little strange, a little knobby and unsure of itself in that display case, but on the human form -- divine. So you graduate from the program and it's time to make a living and you take your best work around various jewelry places, and you get a mixed reaction, frankly, the world isn't quite ready for you, and finally you take it to Harvey's Semi-Precious, which you've avoided because in a way it's a little down-market -- it started as a head shop in fact, and Harvey's this fairly old guy now with a big collection of fancy cigarette cases from the twenties that you find saddens you, and he's got what you might call an old-world smell ...

The set-piece goes on and on, filled with lovely little details, the loveliest of which is when the customer (the plumber / electrician / guy to help you with your flat tire) comes in and is watching the 'jeweler' work: she is bent over her welding torch, and watching him through the shaded glass of her visor, and the customer ... 'He's melting, he's smitten, he's silversmitten.'

God, I love that little sentence.

There was another passage that snuck into me. The man is speaking:

See, see, this is what I need. I need to know secrets and have secrets and keep secrets. I need to be confided in. Each time you come alone and you don't tell anybody, that's a sexual secret. The event has taken place and only you know about it and you have ministered to yourself in exactly the way you wanted to and thought exactly what you wanted to think about.

This reminds me so strongly of a man I know. Not a close friend, but an intimate friend. Years ago, he used to call me at work and ask me to describe what the other girls were wearing. Later, I discovered he called the other girls and asked them to do the same. And it wasn't kinky - at least, not sexually. What he sought, and what I revelled in, why I played along, was the intimacy of asking that question, and getting an answer. Of shocking you into truth. And he still does it - every so often, by email or in person, he will drop a question on me, and I will unfold before him. He has this mysterious quality of attention that makes you want to feed him with the most intimate details of your life, because you somehow feel he is a connoisseur of these stories, that he will appreciate them. There is, of course, also the fact that he never judges. He asks the question from a point of curiosity that would be innocent if it weren't so barbed, then he tips his head on the side and waits for you to pour forth. And I do. (less)

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Jul 14, 2012 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So I should start this review by telling you I read this book for the first time when I was 16. And let me tell you something- I was a virgin, I didn't even have my first (real) boyfriend then and it scared the shit out of me. Eleven years later it's amazing. It's not scary, it's actually a really fun read.

Basically it's a single conversation between two complete strangers. Both strangers call the 1-900 number you see in the back of dirty magazines. (One called it from the back of a Juggs magazi...more So I should start this review by telling you I read this book for the first time when I was 16. And let me tell you something- I was a virgin, I didn't even have my first (real) boyfriend then and it scared the shit out of me. Eleven years later it's amazing. It's not scary, it's actually a really fun read.

Basically it's a single conversation between two complete strangers. Both strangers call the 1-900 number you see in the back of dirty magazines. (One called it from the back of a Juggs magazine, the other one Forum) And it's really interesting because they hook up and talk about a lot of random things. Sexual fantasies, things that are turn on/off's all the while they are some times masturbating. I mean, I don't think I can fully review this book to give it the justice. Instead, I'm going to type you a passage. To set it up, Abby talks of a dream/series of images she had about painting the hallway of her apartment at color called paper lantern. This is only an excerpt but to leave you on a pleasant note....

"And so three painters materialized, and then suddenly there was a large hole in teh wall, about three feet off the floor, big enough so that I could fit through so that my legs were standing in the front hall and yet my head and upper body were in the living room. The hole was finished off and lined with sheepskin. I had nothing on. My hands were resting on two full paint cans. But the strange thing was the cans of paint were warm. There was one painter doing the living room, and the other two doing the hall, where my lower body was. The painter I could see didn't seem to notice me..." and it continues for a while until...

"And then I heard him put down the roller and he planted his hands high on my ass, holding my hips, and then he did an amazing thing. I felt his whole weight go on his hands, and on my back too, and he was apparently supporting himself like a gymnast, entirely on his hands, with his knees bent and his legs apart, and then a secon dlater I felt this burning blunt nub press against my Opulent Opal tockhole, and then kind of urge itself a little ways in."

Um, yeah. There's more. Like two more pages of just THAT little scene which involves something (there were three painters) in each of her um..holes. Three painters, 3 holes. Use your imagination.

SO..if you like a good dirty read- this is for you. If you aren't seeing any action in your bedroom, this is a good read. If you get grossed out and think you are corrupting yourself if you feel a little tingle down below this book is definitely not for you.(less)

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Dec 14, 2011 Drew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: postmodern-toasties, boulder-public-library

Vox could reasonably be described as postmodern; like, for instance, JR, it's composed entirely of dialogue. Unlike JR, it's not difficult to read, contains no contempt for its characters or for humans in general, and makes no attempt at erudition. This is incredibly refreshing.

And despite the fact that Vox's dialogue takes place entirely between two people on a phone sex hotline, I submit that it's less about sex and more about forging a powerful connection between two strangers. Large parts of...more

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Nov 14, 2010 Dale rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Baker is either a member of his generation's great writers or has just spent too many years working as a writer for Penthouse Forum: my bet's on the former. Yes, the book is about sex. It's a huge gamble to have written this novel because, judging by popular culture and the ridiculous percentage of people who think that "Lolita" is a novel about a pedophile, the book can be overlooked and dismissed as just an erotic, albeit well-written and -paced, novel. Luckily, I think there are enough of us...more Baker is either a member of his generation's great writers or has just spent too many years working as a writer for Penthouse Forum: my bet's on the former. Yes, the book is about sex. It's a huge gamble to have written this novel because, judging by popular culture and the ridiculous percentage of people who think that "Lolita" is a novel about a pedophile, the book can be overlooked and dismissed as just an erotic, albeit well-written and -paced, novel. Luckily, I think there are enough of us that can keep the title of the book in mind when we read it and realize the brilliance of the contents. As can be seen by the miniscule number of epistolary novels that really work (Les Liasons Dangerouses and Dear Mr. Henshaw are the only ones that come immediately to mind), crafting a fully formed character out of a phone conversation (or in those cases, letters) where neither character is necessarily being straightforward or honest and posing, in at least a few ways, is unbelievably difficult. Baker succeeds brilliantly in doing so, and at the same time achieves just the right tone and notes. He turns this 900-number phone call into a contemplation on the ways in which humans communicate, miscommunicate, connect, disconnect, subconsciously form traits, interests, and behaviors, and how those can either match perfectly with others or frustratingly make a connection utterly unattainable. Sex is one of the most basic human needs - and the novel takes a basic caveman urge and presents how the current culture, our childhoods, our chance encounters, the very unknowingness of our modern lives reflects that the basic human need is still, at it's core, the same as it was for the caveman, but at the same time, an entirely different beast because of major and minor events in our lives. Even beyond sex, the novel equally contemplates communication itself in the same way: how has it changed, this basic human need? How have the multitude of ways we communicate, connect, and avoid community with others changed? The need for communion with others is inherent, but how have our lives adjusted what that means and how have we changed what that connection means? I was extremely impressed by Baker's triple play.(less)

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Sep 18, 2009 Tim rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book details a single conversation between two people on a phone sex chat line. Neither party is a professional, rather they are both just ordinary everyday people who made the choice to call the line, liked the sound of each other's voices in the group area, and decided to switch to a single private line where they talk only to each other. This is where the book begins.

Though the purpose of their call is for each of them to climax, they end up getting into a long conversation in the proces...more This book details a single conversation between two people on a phone sex chat line. Neither party is a professional, rather they are both just ordinary everyday people who made the choice to call the line, liked the sound of each other's voices in the group area, and decided to switch to a single private line where they talk only to each other. This is where the book begins.

Though the purpose of their call is for each of them to climax, they end up getting into a long conversation in the process: a conversation that probes the essence of each individual's sexuality and, through this, sexuality in general. I was impressed with Baker's ability to keep the reader moving forward based solely on the slowly building approach of the inevitable end to this dialogue.

The dialogue itself was (I suppose) far too intellectual to be anything like what one would actually find on one of these lines. However, Baker keeps enough of the rough and tumble descriptions of sexual fantasies and ideas in the text to always keep the blood pressure a little above normal. As long as that is happening I, as a reader, will always keep reading.

It seems obvious to me that the book was written by a man. Both characters get about equal speaking time, but the male character spoke in a way that explored the deeper aspects of male desire much more than the female character did of female desire. Or perhaps I just felt this way because I am a man, and I didn't recognize the female side of things when it was staring me in the face.

I am really waffling on whether to give this book two or three stars ("It was OK" vs. "I liked it"). On the positive side: 1. I am going to like anything with believable sex in it; 2. I appreciate originality. 3. I felt some kind of poignancy regarding the male character's description of 'pleasure being caused by knowing that pleasure is being experienced.' I wonder sometimes if the essence of the popularity of pornography and eroticism among men is, at its heart, just the fantasy that not only are these ladies acting in a certain way, but they LIKE acting in that way.

This theory is bolstered, I think, by the behavior of the characters in the book where, while the male character seems to want to use the physicality they're discussing as a kind of lifting force, something that can bring them to a higher plane, the female character, on the other hand, continually uses the physical to bring the two of them down by, for example, bringing up her "nasty" yeast infection. But maybe all this has something to do, again, with the fact that I am a man.

The negative side of this book is the twin or reverse image of the positive side: 1. Without the sexual descriptions I would have gotten pretty bored, I think, and put the book down; 2. The confining of this book to a single phone call has something of a dare or a writing exercise to it. In short...look how clever I am that I can create a novel out of just this one topic, and, 3. I am not sure that any meaning I found or felt has any significance other than what a sort of gullible, meaning- oriented person like myself would find while reading a couple hundred pages of anything.

In short, I cannot let myself give Baker the benefit of the doubt and believe that he really wrote something that he felt was worth writing...something where he was honestly trying his hardest to explore a complex and important theme and that I, poor reader that I am, simply failed to grasp more than a glimmer of it. Rather, I think this was kind of a fun, show-offy sort of book that allowed him to demonstrate his intellect, clever use of dialogue, and ability to construct a novel out of an admittedly improbable scenario. Two stars.(less)

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Apr 25, 2009 Erik rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

With Vox, Nicholson Baker uses ideas pornographic and profane to give reason for hope in human decency and interconnectedness. Vox is 165 pages of dialogue between a man and woman who meet on a phone sex line, so with the least amount of exposition possible, the story is made entirely of their interactions and the intricacies of their personalities and intelligence.

Baker, who enjoys performing feats of literary dexterity, gave life and humor to the vast minutia of potentially dull cubicle world...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Oracle_books rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lou

I had never read a book in the format of a telephone conversation before, but 'Vox' made me wonder why everyone wasn't doing it (I can only think of this and 'Interviewing Matisse, or the Woman Who Died Standing Up' by Lily Tuck - if anyone can think of any more then let me know). It's so addictive. I shot through this book.

With 'Vox', Baker flies in the face of what one of the characters calls "smirky kinkiness" by writing about sex completely honestly. It's funny, and fun, and random. It ackno...more

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Sep 26, 2007 Zach rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a fast read and for the most part kept me dialed in to the story however I expected something more along the lines of the Mezzanine (which I had read directly before starting this) which I think left me feeling disappointed and might have tainted the read.

What I learned: balance your reading list - let an author breathe like a red wine for a while before jumping into another book. (Unless of course you're reading something like Harry Potter)

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May 17, 2012 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-books

WELL! This was a classic Nicholson Baker book. He takes a very close look at a relatively mundane thing and by looking so close turns it into something extra-ordinary. In this book Baker explores phone sex. The whole book is one phone call made to a dating service in which callers are invited to have private conversations with other callers. A man and a woman are paired in this one and have discussions that are at times erotic and at times not as much (but sex usually manages to sneak in somehow...more

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Sep 27, 2011 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Read my full review here: http://virtualmargin.blogspot.com/2011/05/vox-22100.html

Vox is a 1992 novella by Nicholson Baker. The 1992 is important, since it's about 2 people chatting over an adult hotline. The entire book is a transcript of their conversation. I love how the book seems like such a relic of its publication date. A phone conversation? HA...how 1992.

FUN FACT: Monica Lewinsky gave a copy of this book to Bill Clinton as a gift. How 1998!

In Vox the two characters, protected by anonymit...more

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Aug 25, 2010 QVT rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 24-hours

I never thought anyone would take the time to write a 176 page argument about why the casual is not erotic, despite Jay's claims in my legendary "Fruit Smoothie." But they did. I'm swayed, Nicholson. You've got a shite name. And the casual is not erotic. Also, you're probably impotent and should get that looked into. I say this as a regular watcher of Criminal Minds. It's better to deal with the issues before you start stabbing (and I do mean stabbing) people. They're innocent. You wet the bed w...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Shaun rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What? Only three stars? Yep. It's different and has an interesting thesis -- that the most intimate conversations between a man and woman can only occur via long-distance telephone -- but not brilliant. Mind you, this was before the advent of Internet, e-mail and Facebook (ironic name there). The author Nicholson Baker, however, is an interesting cat. I finished "The Anthologist" before reading this one and thought it was an extremely good book toward the end. This one, "Vox" reads like one very...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Chance rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've been wanting to read another book by Nicholson Baker ever since I read--and loved--The Fermata. This one isn't as striking or profound as I found that one, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. Still, I feel like he hadn't quite let loose yet. There is a bit of wordplay, creating new words (which, in a weird backwards way, redefine the meanings of the words they're replacing) for sex and body parts; however, it's not as deliciously fun and funny as it is in The Fermata.

Vox is almost impossibl...more

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Sep 10, 2007 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Some people may think Baker is prurient, others that he is deeply philosophical about relationships and sexuality. But there is no denying that he is a bold, fearless writer of erotic scenes and situations. This book, which revolves around practitioners of phone sex, shows off his curious mixture of eroticism and philosophical musing.

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Mar 23, 2011 Fvck rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011

The Mezzanine is a book I think about on a weekly basis; it's frightening how much my brain works in exactly the same way as the brain of Nicholson Baker -- meandering, silly, slightly dorky. So I cracked open Vox excited to watch that same frisky intellect dissect everyone's favorite topics of sex, love, intimacy, etc. But to quote "Glitter and Be Gay" from Candide -- "Oh, twas not to be." There were exactly two pages where this was interesting -- a paragraph on how love is like a radio station...more

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Feb 21, 2011 Jess rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: year-of-virtuous-reading

This *definitely* shouldn't count as a Virtuous book, but I plead susceptibility to NPR-reviewed authors. The book is basically one long phone sex line conversation between two strangers, and it gets about as smutty as you'd expect in that situation. Its charm is the surprisingly accurate rendering of a meandering discussion in prose form--Baker writes how people talk incredibly well. It's dialogue and story at the same time; everything you know, you know from what the characters say, but you st...more

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About Nicholson Baker

Nicholson Baker is a contemporary American writer of fiction and non-fiction. As a novelist, his writings focus on minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness. His unconventional novels deal with topics such as voyeurism and planned assassination, and they generally de-emphasize narrative in favor of intense character work. Baker's enthusiasts appreciate his ability...more

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“Who cares about my cock? It'll fend for itself.” — 2 people liked it

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