Comic sex novel

Anything by author Nicholson Baker is a guilty pleasure. In my hopper is "House of Holes," which bills itself as "a book of raunch." His vocabulary for sex slang is impressive with laugh-out-loud names like peeny wanger.

It's porn sold as literature.

I knew what I was getting into with Nicholson after reading "The Fermata," where the protagonist freezes time and fondles women. This power puts him in control but also spins him out of control. In one memorable (ahem) scene, he stops the flow of time and climbs into the backseat of an attractive woman's car. He records himself reading the dirtiest story he's ever written, inserts the cassette into the car stereo, returns to his car on the freeway and releases time to normal flow. He follows behind until the woman tosses the cassette out the window.

"House of Holes" strives for that alternate reality with plenty of sucking and fucking. Ordinary people crawl into a certain dryer at the laundromat and come out naked in a new land, ready for no-nonsense log jamming, and usually, some freaky jaw-dropping sexcapades that would cause any campus stud or slut to blush.

I have been chewing on "House of Holes" in small doses. They are indulgent servings of campy lust with a slap of science fiction.