I stole this from Tim Parks' great review The Outsider's Art of several books by and on Cesare Pavese in the latest, 40th anniversary issue of the New York Review of Books which is fully online (via FraFuchs weblog). It seems that Pavese's suicide (when 42 years old) had a lot to do with his lack of success with women. On the other hand I find his perspective on sex rather intriguing. As it cannot be dismissed totally. In its lust hostile consequences it is pretty close to the Christian stance but the reasons are different. I don't think that it has anything to do with shame or sin in Pavese's case (he was a communist by the way). It is more envy of all the couples who have good sex. He tries to ridicule something he can't have which he wants to have so desperately. There is a ressentiment feeling going on here. And he tries to turn it around. He who is a complete failure in bed is morally superior as he sees through the banality and ridiculousness of sex. And he takes much more the piss out of the males than the females in his small description of the act of physical love. As they are his rivals and successful whereas he isn't. In a way he isn't an adult man as he doesn't sleep with women and therefore he is not risible.