Fifty Shades of Meh

Nathalie Rothschild thinks E.J. James's dismissively-critiqued 'mommy porn' is, frankly, crap:

Fifty Shades has a dull plot, cringey dialogue, one-dimensional characters and sexscapades involving ropes, whips, handcuffs and ‘explosive’ orgasms. It tells the story of how Anastasia Steele, an innocent-but-smart literature graduate, gets drawn into an S&M relationship with 27-year-old multibillionaire CEO, Christian Grey. She’s a virgin; he’s got 15 ‘submissives’ under his belt. She reads English classics, lives with a roommate and favours jeans and sneakers over dresses and high heels. He’s a piano prodigy and a wine connoisseur, has model looks, employs a butler and owns a fleet of private aircraft. He is also dedicated to ending world hunger and his aversion to being touched springs from a messed-up childhood as the son of a crack whore.

Gioconda Belli conducts an in-depth literary reading of the book. A recent Newsweek story on the book discussed the phenomenon at length.