Exactly how steamy is this story?
R
Uh, you might not want to read this at your Parents N' Kidz Read Bookz book club. You might want to run screaming from the room if the idea is even suggested (both reading Ragtime and joining a book club with that ridiculous of a name).
Masturbating man in closet? Yup. Sexual whippings? Yuup. Weird repressed Father/Mother sex, followed by unhinged Father/Inuit woman sex, followed by dang-who's-been-reading-Cosmo-sex-tips-style Father/Mother sex? Yuuup. Homoerotic massages? Yuuuup. More masturbating? Yuuuuup.
We'd go on, but we're wearing down our "U" key from writing so many iterations of "yup." You get the idea. There is sex, there is more sex, and there is graphic sex. Sometimes including historical figures (whee!). Part of this book's project is to look at the changing role of sex in America, especially the changing sexual attitudes of women, so it's not surprising that Doctorow gets down n' dirty with his descriptions. We'll never look at the word "ticker tape" the same way again…