Wetlands by Charlotte Roche

Charlotte Roche is a literary phenomenon. In April last year, she was the first German author to top Amazon’s monthly bestseller. Her debut novel, Wetlands, has sold half a million copies at home and is so sexually explicit that people are said to have fainted at readings.

The book definitely instigates a strong stomach, discussing, as it does, the narrator’s sexual preferences in instant detail, but is it cleverly packaged pornography (in its original language its called Feuchtgebiete and its reported as being a German porn novel) or an erotic classic? Furthermore, why have so many people chosen to read a novel that breaks all the conventional barriers of taste?
The most exposing piece in the novel, however, is not about sex. Description of Helen’s mother: “Mom’s afraid of the natural world and her knowledge of it. She always seems to be fighting against it. She fights against dirt in the household. She fights against various insects. In the garden, too. Fights against bacteria of all kinds. Against sex. Against men and women.” (Roche has asked her parents not to read Wetlands!).
The book is a rashly drop by every fissure and consequence, physical and psychological, of its narrator’s body and mind. It is difficult to the overplay obscenity of the novel. Wetlands beginning in a hospital room after an intimate shaving accident. It gives a detailed topography of Helen’s haemorrhoid’s, continues into the subject of anal intercourse and only gains momentum from there, eventually reaching avocado pits as objects of female sexual satisfaction and – here is where the debate kicks in – just possibly female empowerment. Obviously, the novel has struck a nerve, catching a wave of popular interest in renewing the debate over women’s roles and image in society.
The novel’s heroine explores her own orifices with the courageousness of a medieval adventurer; Helen’s vagina, anus and bodily secretions fascinate her, to a degree, that will not unavoidably be shared by every reader. The novel’s opening sentence, an admission that Helen has always suffered from haemorrhoids, signals that nothing is off limits. Forced to rest while her doctors wait for her to defecate successfully after the operation, Helen exposes her unusual attitude to personal hygiene, which includes smearing secretions from her vagina behind her ears as a substitute for perfume: “It works wonders from the moment you greet someone with a kiss on each cheek.”

Today disputes about pornography have moved from the law courts to the literary events, where the combustion question is whether writing that stimulates sexual arousal can also be literature. Feminists entered the debate long ago, denouncing commercially produced pornography and the relentless sexualization of violence in popular culture. Their object was not the description of sex, but the objectification and retaliation of women that so often accompanies it, and a generation of feminist novelists set about liberating female sexuality from this depressing confines. Wetlands has definitely continued debate about pornography. Every few years a novel appears that challenges the constantly shifting boundaries on writing about sex, and in recent years the author of the work in question has often been a woman.
However, I think that Wetlands goes beyond porn. Post-porn perhaps? It is an important book that pushes social borderlines and intensities us to reframe female sexuality and reconsider our relationship to our own bodies and their functions. Roche is an author who challenges and Wetlands is a challenging book that will be disregarded by some as unnecessarily shocking and intentionally provocative.

“I can only wish that the young women who think Wetlands sounds intriguing will head to the erotica section of the nearest women’s bookstore first.” — Sallie Tisdale, in the Times on Sunday.

Roche, 30, was born in England – High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, in fact -but moved to Germany with her English parents when she was a child and speaks English with a slight accent. Her parents divorced when she was 5, an event that (as we shall see) has had a lasting impact on her life. She was an early developer and became a TV star in her teens, making her name on the German equivalent of MTV where she became notable for late-night interviews in which she asked female celebrities about their sexual fantasies.

Enjoy!

• Geisha: The Life, the Voices by Jodi Cobb Amazing Gift Book! “Geisha: The Life, the Voices” is an icon of Japanese culture and custom- the geisha in her role as human work of art and perfect woman. A hundred years ago geisha numbered eighty thousand; today there is a thousand at most. Luckily, Jodi Cobb can show us-......
• Picoult, Jodi She was born and raised —happily—on Long Island… something that she believed at first was a detriment to a girl who wanted to be a writer. "I had such an uneventful childhood that when I was taking writing classes at college, I called home and asked my mother if maybe......
• Keeping Faith By Jodi Picoult Jodi Picoult's fans will gladly received  novel, which explores family dynamics and the intricacies of motherhood, and concludes, as did The Pact, with tense courtroom drama. In the small town of New Canaan, N.H., 33-year-old Mariah discovers that her husband, Colin, is having an affair. Years ago, his cheating drove......
• Book Review Blog Carnival #38 Many thanks to all the contributors in this edition of the Carnival. Novel Clark Bjorke presents The Highest Tide posted at I'll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book!. Jim Lynch's first novel is a magical realist coming of age story with a marine biology theme. Ranjita Patra......
• GONE TOMORROW by Lee Child Reacher is on a underground with a woman who looks like she is about to perform a suicide bombing. She does something unpredictable, and Reacher needs to find out what is going on. There's a junction to occurrences in Afghanistan and the Ukraine, and interactions with the NYPD, FBI and......
• Dangerous and Beautiful Women- Patricia Highsmith Greatest Crime Authors Patricia Highsmith, author of famous Talented Mr.Ripley, was hard drinker, lesbian, defied social taboos in the 1950's by flaunting her affair with another woman, her own life was full of dark secrets. “… She was more beautiful than most other female socialites at the London party, and......
• Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut When Kurt Vonnegut died in April 2007, the world lost a ironic interpreter on the human condition. Thanks to this collection of unpublished fiction and nonfiction, Vonnegut's voice returns full force. Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of non-fiction and fiction short stories about war and peace written by Kurt......
• House of Cards By William D. Cohan A firm that was established on May 1, 1923, and stayed through the 1929 crash and the Great Depression, had been ruined by bad management and the crisis of 2008. In famous March 2008 when the 85-year-old firm Bear Stearns crashed and burned in little over a week, it became......
• Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving John Irving’s, who is author of "The World According to Garp" and "The Cider House Rules", recent novel Last Night in Twisted River is frequently as turbulent as the river that supplies its name. It involves dog fights, drowning, shotgun blasts, lethal car accidents, severed limbs, babies in danger, and......

• Top 50 Romance Novel Blogs to Watch in 2009 Romance, I can't get enough of it. I'm constantly surfing the internet subscribing and looking into new blogs geared toward romance novels and the genre. I've compiled a list of fifty blogs that I think readers and authors of romance should watch this year. In this list there are group......
• Eighth Annual FIS Snowboard World Championships With the New Year, we see a new January packed with many events for the snowboarder to prepare for and the fan to keep watch over. Included in the events is the eighth annual FIS snowboard world championships, held in Sungwoo, Gangwon Province from the 17th to the 24th. Also......
• Top Skis for Women - Product Reviews of Skis Made for Women Today's women's skis can pack a truly powerful punch. They have been designed, developed and built in order to allow a woman skier to tackle everything from groomers to moguls and beyond. If you are looking for the top skis for women for the 2008 and 2009 ski season, look......
• Guy Things To Do Before You Die Every guy has a list. We as men have an inherit obsession with lists. We are programmed to respect the priority and organization that the all Holy List provides. Moses introduced all brethren of the world to the original and ultimate list when he returned from Mt. Sinai with the......
• Ten Reasons Why Women Love Romance Novels 5 Reasons why the unenlightened think we love romance novels: 10. We're bored and have nothing better to do. This explains why a good portion of us read in lines, just before the lights go off in a theater, between meetings, before class, and during our commute... because we have......
• 2010's Top 50 Romance Novel Blogs part 5 The final ten romance novel blogs. You now have all 100 blogs, 50 from last year, and 50 new ones from this year. I hope with them you find many new books to read, friends to chat to, and good times to share! For a quick and easy way to......
• The Challenging World of the Womens Triathlon The triathlon is one of the most challenging races known to man. It tests you on so many different levels that it takes a strong endurance level just to be able to train for it. Not everyone can compete on the same level which is why there are separations for......
• Book Review: Wild Sight by Loucinda McGary I managed to sneak another romance novel in time for Halloween that has a spooky overtone. Wild Sight by Loucinda McGary takes place in a fictional town in Ireland with a lot of real cities and sights thrown in for good measure. This little mystery romance has a paranormal......
• Women's Pro Top 4350W Women's Dinghy & One Design Gear, Pro Dinghy Top, White, 10 Gill s new Dinghy One Design Gear features improved breathability for greater comfort on the water. It offers water and wind protection without weight or bulk for kayaking, dinghy or sporting keelboats that demand maximum agility. The Pro Top has a center zip opening for ease of use, a slim......
• Venus Williams Changes Focus The Wimbledon championship's top female champion Venus Williams has withdrawn from the upcoming Wimbledon open in order to prepare for the another match that is coming up. The match in question is the $ 4.5 millions Sony Ericsson Championships, and this is the season ender for the WTA Tour that......