http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/UndertheDome/111606.htmlIn the final throes of Sen. George Allen’s failed reelection bid, the Virginia Republican took aim at some seamier passages of fiction written by his rival, Democratic Sen.-elect Jim Webb. But we wonder what Allen thinks of some other fiction that hits a little closer to home.
Early fiction written by Allen’s sister, Jennifer, depicts scenes that might make even former Marine Webb blush. “Better Get Your Angel On,” Jennifer Allen’s 1989 collection of short stories, includes one story in which a couple engages in violent sexual acts while their child watches and smokes a joint. Other passages depict sex, violence and profanity.
The prose is written in a sort of disorienting, Faulkneresque style. A review from Publishers Weekly that accompanies the book’s listing on Amazon.com noted that with “insistent, arresting voices that hurtle the reader through glimpses of hedonistic, drug-speeded-up lives, some of the 13 very short stories in this debut collection succeed on their technical brilliance and shock value.”
Webb, a former Marine who served as secretary of the Navy, is the author of six novels, according to his website. Allen’s campaign trotted out passages from several of them, saying they were “demeaning” to women and “dehumanizing.”