If there's anything I hate, it's popular romance novels. Not to out any authors (Nicholas Sparks, Stephenie Meyer, and Nora Roberts...) but love, sex, all of that is never like it is in those novels. Anymore, it's so hard to find a relationship how it actually is, confusing, messy and a little uneasy, to be honest. No wonder high school girls just entering relationships, growing up with The Notebook, Twilight and Lifetime movies, have unrealistically high ideals and standards for falling in love with--and eventually having sex with--another human being that's just as confused, messed up and uneasy as them.
Steve Almond's work is more something that I tend to look for in novels if they so happen to focus around a relationship. Instead of seeing your significant other through rose-tinted glasses, you should be with them for who they are, much like we've talked about all semester. The idea of sex and sexuality that was present in Almond's work was surprising, but only in that it was real. It wasn't all flowers and romance, candlelight and rose petals because sex is never like that.
At the same time, it's never meaningless, no matter how many people try to say otherwise. Raw and vulnerable, it's mental and emotional way more than it could ever be physical. For a story to portray the darkest parts of characters and not just the lovely parts of them during an intimate scene, we see the whole relationship for what it really is: whole, passionate and maybe a tad awkward.
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