Polite Sex

Tula Springs

by James Wilcox

When Emily and Clara, two young women from Tula Springs, Louisiana, arrive in New York City, they carry with them all the youthful expectancy of a bright future filled with passion and accomplishment. As the years pass and Emily and Clara follow different paths, each discovers in her own way that growing older involves concessions -- and that concessions in love can be the costliest of all.

Genres: Fiction

291 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

James Wilcox (b. 1949 in Hammond, Louisiana) is an American novelist and a professor at LSU in Baton Rouge.

Wilcox is the author of eight comic novels set in, or featuring characters from, the fictional town of Tula Springs, Louisiana. Wilcox's first book Modern Baptists (1983) remains his best known work. His other novels are North Gladiola (1985), Miss Undine's Living Room (1987), Sort of Rich (1989), Polite Sex (1991), Guest of a Sinner (1993), Plain and Normal (1998), Heavenly Days (2003), and Hunk City (2007). Wilcox is also the author of three short stories that were published in The New Yorker between 1981 and 1986, three of only four short stories that the author has published. He has written book reviews for The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, and two pieces for ELLE. He was the subject of an article by James B. Stewart in The New Yorker's 1994 summer fiction issue; entitled "Moby Dick in Manhattan", it detailed his struggle to survive as a writer devoted purely to literary fiction.

Wilcox, a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1986, has held the Robert Penn Warren Professorship at Louisiana State University since September 2004. He is also the director of the university's creative writing program.

Reviews

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a failed novel, but I read it all the way through anyway. In general, Wilcox writes about intelligent, neurotic, but basically decent people who are incredibly bad at reading other people. The fun is feeling that you understand more about what's going on than the main characters. Then Wilcox will turn the tables and make you realize that you are not as insightful as you thought. I found Wilcox's satire darker here than in his other novels--his customary empathy for his characters failed him. There is a hilarious description of a disappointing attempt at love-making, however, that is almost worth the price of the book.

[Susan Katz]

Clearing out some old books for Nancy to take to her beach house. If I saved it, I probably liked it. But I'm unlikely to every read it again.

[Florence Millet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked this up for a dollar in centerville, thought it would be more engaging but at least it had some good lines. Clara was pretty clown-like

[Moira Crone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel has much in common with other sagas of adult life in the city for my generation--Three Junes ( winner of the National Book Award) is one that comes directly to mind--it bears a great deal of similarity, in milieu and in the characters' dilemnas, ( Polite Sex was published much earlier). Angels in America also comes to mind: the crisis of the spiritual, the crisis of sexual identity, the crisis of coupling altogether ---the struggle to form new kinds of bonds when conventional marriage seems out of reach or out of the question: the themes are dealt with in a comic manner here, whereas in other novels, and plays, the same were more tragic. It is truly a rendering of City Life for the Baby Boomer generation in the seventies, eighties, and nineties--now history, for my generation are no longer struggling with these issues. We are in our fifties now, these questions have been answered or abandoned, by time. It's beautifully, musically cadenced, deft, bright, fun to follow, like a great long piano piece, and it represents. A very fine novel.

[Nita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean, the author went to Yale and one of the main characters went to Smiff, and I lived in a few cramped NYC apartments in my day, and I've dated a few schmoes. But this book lost whatever steam it had 1/3 of the way in and I began to feel like I was reading Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls or whatever. Also, there seemed to be a lot of gratuitous scenes involving men jerking themselves off in front of other people for no apparent reason.

Author does a nice job shifting POVs though and some of the characters are well-drawn (e.g. R.X. or whatever his name was; Emily Brix's dad).

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wilcox's trick of contrasting how people see themselves with how others see them can be fun, and brings some laughs in the beginning of the book. However, the time-lapse structure of the storytelling jolts the reader out of any connection that might have been developing with any of the characters, and the novel spends too much time inside the characters' heads and too little time actually watching the story move forward.

[Sara Said · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh this book is dreadful!

The characters are outdated and I couldn't find a way to connect to any of them.. They weren't relatable or well written at all.. The plot dragged on with no sense of purpose, direction, or rhythm... It was just blah, I just read 200 pages of blah and I wish I could have my time refunded..

I tried to finish it but it was never going to happen.. Stay far, far, away from this crappy, crappy book!

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not very good. It had a couple of interesting things to say but I mostly just wanted it to be over. It would start to be interesting and then it just wasn't. Think I'll just give this one away.
Blah!

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. It seemed out of date to me and SLOW.

[laur · Rating 2 out of 5]

it's a decent read, i haven't decided if i hate it yet or not. i most certainly was frustrated with the characters... like one would be with anyone they wanted to shake some sense in to.

[Tiffany · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely dreadful. No connection with the characters (one of whom is a complete drip) and even the setting in London did not leave me yearning for more.

Skip it.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read during summer teaching seminar in PA.