incest novels

LOL. You're right... I don't think there'll be many people saying they're pro-incest or something. But I can kinda see the "merit" in trying to "understand" the subject through fiction and non-fiction books.
But this is getting awfully off-topic, so I'll remain quiet now.

well, first i want to thank all these people
who respond
second i want to stress her that i'm not pro-incest
nor against it, between adults ok
contrary to what some of you have said
i found lot of books that deal with that subject
from different POVs
take for example Unto The Soul by the Israeli
author Aharon Appelfeld, it is not just about incest
between a brother & sister, but it also "explore the psychic and
cultural forces that framed the lives of East European Jewry"
as the Library Journal said

So what?? The point of many people on this I think is not so much that you cannot find books treating the topic in a context of whichever kind but rather that - contextualised or not - finding that speaks about incest in a 'normal' way is impossible: incest is a moral issue and question. If you normalise it, it means you try to treat it in someone and attenuate its effect, or (and I am exclusive here) that you want to explain (which often ends up justifying in practice) why some ended up practising incest.

Now as far as contexts are concerned, contextualising more or less played the same role as explaining the 'normality' of something - am doing that for my doctorate man: most sociological studies when they contextualise never unravel the immorality of what is considered as normal. A great literary example for that is "Death of a Poet" (Mort d'Un Poete) by Michel del Castillo where you have a magnificent scene of rape.
Now if your point is to show that secluse and religiously orthodox social environments are prone to sexual perversion, fair enough for you. Guess you can find that kind of issue of Jewry being treated in several books as well and in movies as well (see Kadosh). The point is that it does not change much in some books being dodgily conservative and - I think - morally meaning ALWAYS: i.e. pro or against. There is no middle ground even of some people pretend there is. Examples - psychological incest in this case - are, by Tahar Ben Jelloun, "Sand Child" and "The Sacred Night" (about a girl who is forced to hide as a woman because her Dad is ashamed of her sex in North Africa). If you want something on incest and Islam I can give a bulk of references as well.

So coming back to my first question in this thread: WHY are YOU interested in novels on incest? As far as I am concerned, I would be as a denunciation tool but at little doses because the topic is morally slippery. My best easy to explain argument for that is that at looking at too many war 'bleeding' movies on TV I got used to violence as a principle and forgot what war might be in practice and its meaning. It took a journey to Turkey and constant terrorist thread on tourist sites and military presence, and lots of contacts with Algerian people with families exploded, threatened or murdered during the troubles from 1992 to realise it again. This normalisatio now makes me fell dodgy. So, on incest, what is your position?
I am now off... for a while. If anyone wants to follow on this, I let people go for it.

Sincerely,
Morry

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I can't believe no one in here has mentioned 'Flowers in the Attic."

There is a Dean Koontz novel called The Bad Place. It's been forever since I read it but I remember two cat-like sisters who are always laying around in each others arms and being very sentual. I don't remember if anything MORE happens with them but I seem to recall it might =)

Oedipus, Lot & Guy de Maupassant

The Theban Trilogy of Sophocles, regarding Oedipus, is an ancient classic in which a man unknowningly marries his own mother. But I am sure everyone knows about that one.

In the Old Testament, in Genesis I think, is the account of Lot and his two daughters, who escape the destruction of Sodom. But his daughters worry that they will never find husbands and have children, so they get their father drunk and then become pregnant by their father.

I remember a Guy de Maupassant short story where a sailor spends the night with a harlot, and as they talk, little by little, they piece together the details of their childhood and parentage, and by sunrise, they realize that they are brother and sister, separated at infancy.

I know it's an old thread but...The Cement Garden.

Incest is not a definition of sexual abuse.

I recommend 'Farnham's Freehold' and 'Time Enough for Love' by Robert A. Heinlein which rationalize incest between consenting adults.

I would agree with Stewart that Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden is probably the leading literary exploration of incest. I haven't read it but I believe it has a brother and sister who become embroiled sexually when their mother dies.

Kathryn Harrison wrote an autobiographical 'novel' (either The Kiss or The Binding Chair) on this subject.

laurenaefe said:

I can't believe no one in here has mentioned 'Flowers in the Attic."

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That was my first thought too, but that author's books were REALLY REALLY badly written. When the shock value subsided, so did her books. I wouldn't recommend them.

Anne-Marie MacDonald's 'Fall On Your Knees' is not about incest per se, but it's a central theme. Can't say it's neutral, though.

Ell said:

Anne-Marie MacDonald's 'Fall On Your Knees' is not about incest per se, but it's a central theme. Can't say it's neutral, though.

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it's an excellent book. excellent.

wasteland by francesca lia block

laurenaefe said:

I can't believe no one in here has mentioned 'Flowers in the Attic."

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namedujour said:

That was my first thought too, but that author's books were REALLY REALLY badly written.

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Did neither of you read the original post? The one that says, and I quote:

maher20 said:

could anybody tell what novels that deal with the subject
of incest in a neutral way other than V.C.Andrews books

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Shade said:

I haven't read it [Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden] but I believe it has a brother and sister who become embroiled sexually when their mother dies.

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Yes, this is the story. It's relatively short, also. And then there's the film starring Serge Gainsbourg's daughter, Charlotte, who was no stranger to incest having sung the song Lemon Incest with her father at a young age (8 - 12?) while he moaned and cooed "sweet child" and "delicious infant".

Middlesex by Jeffrey Euginedes, had an incestuous brother and sister as well.

Aztec by Gary Jennings (brother/sister)
The Beans of Egypt Maine by Carolyn Chute (aunt/nephew)

If you want more factual stuff, rather than novels dealing with it, then try looking at some sociology type books. I remember reading some stuff on incest in my sociology text book at uni, so I'm sure other sociology books would cover it as well.