Vox

by Nicholson Baker

Paperback, 1993

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Vintage (1993), Edition: First Edition edition, Paperback, 176 pages

Description

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. From the Trade Paperback edition.

User reviews

LibraryThing member heidialice

Two lonely people who have never met call an erotic phone service and end up chatting for hours.

This is by far the wittiest and most literary erotica I have ever read. Hot, smart and sexy, the fantasies are lush and the conversation realistic.

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LibraryThing member stephenmurphy

Ay Caramba. The best erotica I have ever read and hilariouysly clever too.

LibraryThing member rmckeown

Nicholson Baker has a reputation for peculiar novels. The Mezzanine, for example, chronicles a single ride on an escalator between an office and the lobby of an office building. The narrator muses on life, lunch, and the shoe laces he intends to buy on his lunch hour. Room Temperature, chronicles

the musings of a new father as he rocks the baby one afternoon. Box of Matches relates thirty days in the life of a text book editor who wakes early every morning, makes a cup of coffee, and lights a fire with a single match. He then muses on his life. All these slim novels grab hold of the reader. I found it difficult to put any of them down – even for a minute. Fortunately, all are 200 pages or less. Vox, the record of a single phone call between a man in California and a woman in Massachusetts, does not deviate from the rest of Baker’s work.

Sometimes chatty, sometimes serious, and occasionally erotic, the conversation ranges over the lives of two strangers brought together by an ad in a personals column. They share tidbits of their lives then the other will riff on the facts into a fantasy world.

Quoting any of the novel will give some elements away, so I won’t do that. Baker cannot be reproduced; he must be experienced right off the page. Some parts of the conversation are decidedly NC-17, but not too many. Those passages are easy to spot and avoid. For an interesting a quirky detour into the minds of two strangers, Vox fills the bill. (5 stars).

-Jim, 9/20/11

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LibraryThing member rickstill122

Thought it couldn't be done. Baker's imagination is like a fine bottle of champagne within which you find a finer bottle and then a finer bottle. Is it Dostoyevsky? No, but this is the novel Dostoyevsky would have written if he hadn't been busy drinking spring water in Baden-Baden. Is it Faulkner?

No, but 3 less dark-bourbon hangovers and knowledge of chat line etiquette and YES YES YES! Pop the cork on your imagination. Also: the human who insulted this book beneath my review gave 4 stars to an encyclopedia of CATS!!!!!!!!!!!

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LibraryThing member baswood

Well this was a little different to what I usually read. A novel that relates a telephone conversation between a couple of strangers; a man and a women who are interested in mutual masturbation. It starts with that well worn question "What are you wearing? and ends with the possibility of

exchanging telephone numbers. One of them has answered an add in a personal column of a sex magazine and they both enjoy the way their telephone conversation is going. They tell stories to each other, ask personal questions and when they feel comfortable with each other, get down to the business of masturbating. The novel was published in 1992 before the advent of video messaging and so Baker's intimate descriptions have to serve a purpose.

Whatever turns you on! and this telephone call certainly turned on Jim and Abby and it could have a similar effect on the reader who is privileged to eavesdrop on their conversation. Baker writes well and the stories that are told are quirky and titillating rather than nasty and dirty. The two characters are careful not to spoil the bond that they have created and act sensitively to each others feelings. Its the sort of book that might lead you afterwards to take a warm bath rather than a cold shower. The joys of masturbation are thoroughly explored and if you find this subject best left in the hands of the beholder then the book might not be for you. I lapped it up and blame it on the confinement. 3.5 stars.

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LibraryThing member mattearls

The only reason I admit I read this book, never mind gave it five stars is that I worked at Kramer's Bookstore where Monica Lewinsky herself bought her copy. It's a phone sex conversation, scandalous. The owner was going to give her records over to Ken Starr until the Librarians Association

picketed outside. This is part of why I'm proud to be a librarian.

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LibraryThing member dulcinea14

One long phone sex conversation. Maybe this novel would have appealed to me in the 90's, when I was in college, but I found it dated and self-indulgent.

LibraryThing member soylentgreen23

Is there a difference between writing about sex and that writing being pornographic? I think so, and this book seems to support that idea - there is a sadness behind so much of this tale of two people talking through the night that keeps the sexiness of their exchange at one reserve. I wasn't

expecting to get as much out of this book as I did.

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LibraryThing member Nataliec7

I heard good things about this book which prompted me to read it. Its a new concept of writing for me as it is all based around one phonecall. One erotic phonecall nevertheless. And although, rather interesting, there was also some moments where I was a little bored.
Its not however, for the faint

hearted and I probably wouldn't read it in public! The ending was good, I like the way they ended this long erotic conversation.

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LibraryThing member nmele

Rereading this, I realized it is not simply Nicholson Baker being daring about sex, it is actually both a satire and an examination of the shallowness of our connections and our sexuality. A tragedy, but one which contains the seeds of "House of Holes", his comedy about the same subject.

LibraryThing member amydross

Entertaining, amusing, and intermittently charming. I appreciate the attempt at what might be termed "intelligent porn", but Vox doesn't quite succeed on either front. Also, for a book that aims to be sexy, there's quite a few references to yeast infections -- a bold but pehaps ill-conceived choice.

LibraryThing member evanroskos

so sexy. basically 2 people talk on a sex phone line for an evening discussing what makes men tick (sexually, of course) and what makes women tick (again. you get the point.)

This book would of course become more famous because Bill bought Monica a copy.

LibraryThing member SRumzi

A man and a woman connect on a phone line service. They get erotic and explicit in their conversation. They refuse to hang up in case they lose the connection. Funny and sexy.

LibraryThing member LynnB

Jim and Abbey each call a sex chat line and end up talking to each other for hours -- almost exclusively about sex, but you nonetheless get a picture of them as lonely intellectuals and as real people you can (at least sometimes) relate to.

Nicholson Baker is a master of taking a single situation --

a man starting each day by lighting a fire; two friends talking in a hotel room -- and turning it into a compelling story with little other than dialogue (or an interior monologue). This kind of writing isn't for everyone, but I find it compelling and fascinating how he makes so much happen with very little "action".

Vox is about phone sex. That's why Jim and Abbey called the line. That's what they talk about. Read any excerpt and that's what you get. But read the whole book, and you get so much more.

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LibraryThing member Sean191

Another enjoyable read from Baker and as always, concentrating on the mundane and taking in the finest details of the mundane, but in a way that most people wouldn't consider. Vox is a love story and a lust story - it's about a man and a woman meeting on a phone sex line. Although it is fairly

graphic (less so than a story in a adult magazine) Baker often substitutes some non-word for different actions and related words that might be offensive to the easily or somewhat-easily offended.

If you've read Baker before and enjoy his take on the minutiae of everyday life with some extremes thrown in as a catalyst, this book should leave you satisfied. Um...not like that - get your mind out of the gutter.

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LibraryThing member sfisk

Good, but I liked "the mezzanine" by him better

LibraryThing member sarahlh

Let's just say that if the idea of reading one long (and I do mean looooong) phone sex conversation that involves numerous tales of sexual exploits and the exploration of human sexuality in society among other things makes your stomach queasy and you set to faint then do not read this book. If

these things are up your alley, there is no way you cannot enjoy this book.

Also, sex. Sex sex sex. Did I mention it's about two people who eventually get off from the other's voice? Just letting you know.

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